‘What happened in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan’, PM warns world of looming climate disaster

Islamabad: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday warned that climate change would not spare other countries after the flash floods inundated one-third of Pakistan and left millions homeless.

“What happened in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan,” he said in a tweet reiterating his call for urgent action a day after the United Nations issued a revised flash appeal of $816 million as relief assistance for the flood-stricken people of the country.

A month ago, an initial US $160 million flash appeal was made to address immediate needs based on estimates. However, the results of the recent needs assessments, that led to the up-scaling of the flash appeal to $816 million, revealed that much more was needed to save those struggling to survive the aftermath of the floods.

PM Sharif in his tweet highlighted that more than 1,600 Pakistanis–including 400 children had lost their lives due to massive floods besides thousands of kilometres of road infrastructure and bridges washed away.

“Entire villages have been swallowed up by raging waters. Nature has been truly unforgiving,” he said.

Recently, Shehbaz Sharif actively pursued the case of the flood-hit Pakistan on international platforms, including at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan, in London, and at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

A video compilation shared by the official Twitter account of the Government of Pakistan gave a flashback of different occasions when Shehbaz Sharif made passionate calls at the global level, stressing an urgent response by the world for the disaster-hit Pakistan.

In his meetings with over 50 world leaders on the eves of SCO and UNGA last month, the prime minister called for climate justice and appealed to the world to share the burden of the climate crisis. He also highlighted that Pakistan was responsible for less than one percent of the world’s planet-warming gases, yet it was the eighth most vulnerable nation to the climate crisis.

During his participation at both the important global and regional forums, Sharif on the sidelines, also interacted with foreign media to relay his message about the importance of an emergency action plan against climate change.

With his call for climate action, PM Sharif was covered by the world’s top broadcasters and international media including Washington Post, CNN, Reuters, Aljazeera, BBC, Bloomberg, TRT World, Independent, Arab News, Le Monde, Al Ittihad, Zaman, Barron’s, City News, YeniSafak, The Straits Times, and several others.