Flood-hit Pakistan to seek $16B at next week’s conference

By MUNIR AHMED
Associated Press

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Officials say Pakistan is expected to seek $16.3 billion in aid from the international community for reconstruction for millions of victims of last summer’s climate-induced devastation floods. The request is the centerpiece of Monday’s summit the poverty-stricken nation is hosting with the United Nations in Geneva. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry is expected to brief world leaders on the disaster, which killed 1,739 people and affected 33 million Pakistanis. U.N. officials in Pakistan have warned that the funding raised so far for Pakistan’s flood victims will run out after Jan. 15 because the world body had so far received only a third of the $816 million in emergency aid it sought last October.