ISLAMABAD: Pakistan incurred more than $30 billion in damages and economic losses from the catastrophic 2022 floods but has received a mere $600 million in foreign assistance, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal stated on Friday.
He revealed that beyond this amount, all other international commitments came in the form of loans, most of which were repurposed from existing facilities. The minister made these remarks while releasing preliminary estimates, which place the immediate flood-related damages at approximately Rs822 billion (around $2.9 billion).
“This is an irony,” Mr. Iqbal said, pointing out that while the global community has pledged a $100 billion climate-finance fund, it “did not provide even $1 billion” to Pakistan in the wake of the disaster.
Consequently, after internal consultations, the government has decided to address the latest flood losses using domestic resources instead of relying on “external crutches.” This decision stands despite the recent “apocalyptic floods” inflicting around $3 billion in damages to agriculture and infrastructure, in addition to the tragic human cost.
The minister explained that comprehensive surveys to assess the full scale of flood losses, including in the economic sector, are currently underway and are expected to be finalized within two weeks. The preliminary report details a human toll of over 1,039 lives lost and 1,067 individuals injured, alongside the Rs822 billion in damage to infrastructure and agriculture.
This breakdown includes Rs430 billion in damages to the agriculture sector and Rs307 billion to infrastructure. Furthermore, more than 229,763 houses have been damaged or destroyed, with a staggering 213,000 of those located in Punjab alone.
Other provinces and regions also suffered significant housing damage: 6,370 houses in Balochistan, 3,677 in Azad Jammu Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, 3,332 in Sindh, and 3,222 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“At least 6.5 million people across 70 districts have felt the brunt,” the minister said, “including around 4 million who were temporarily displaced as waters receded and families returned to assess the wreckage.”
The damage to public assets was extensive, with over 2,811 kilometres of roads damaged, more than 2,200 head of livestock lost, around 2,200 educational institutions affected, over 250 health facilities impacted, and roughly 866 water-infrastructure assets hit.
Major crop losses are estimated to include up to 3.4 million bales of cotton, over one million tonnes of rice, and between 1.3 million and 3.3 million tonnes of sugarcane, pending final ground verification.
Punjab was the worst-affected province, accounting for Rs632 billion of the national Rs822 billion damage tally. The minister added that the provincial chief minister has briefed a meeting chaired by the prime minister on a proposed support package for affected farmers and families.
Shifting to development expenditure, Mr. Iqbal reported that about Rs40 billion had been disbursed under the Public Sector Development Programme in the first quarter of the current fiscal year—a figure nearly 16 percent higher than the Rs34.8 billion disbursed in the same period last year.
Regarding the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the minister stated that the minutes of the recent Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting would be finalized by the month’s end. He also dispelled the impression that tangible progress on the second phase of bilateral cooperation was absent from the JCC discussions.
He further announced that, at Pakistan’s request, China has agreed to finance 85 percent of the Karakoram Highway works linked to the Diamer-Bhasha Dam, with the bidding process expected to commence in approximately two months.
