The Commonwealth Secretariat will send a team of medical experts to Pakistan for three months to assist Pakistan in coping with the emergency following the October 8 disaster.
An advance medical team from the Secretariat would arrive in the country this week to carry out an initial assessment and would be followed by the first batch of doctors, said the Commonwealth sources here on Thursday.
The medical experts, to be deployed under the Secretariat's Commonwealth Service Abroad Programme, will be provided with medical kits and health equipment to assist their work. The Secretariat will work with Pakistan's Ministry of Health to deploy members of the team to areas where they are most needed.
Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon while commenting on the deployment of the doctors said: "We are drawing on medical volunteers with wide-ranging expertise from within the Commonwealth family to assist Pakistan in coping with the emergency following the disaster. The government of Pakistan has informed us of priority areas where it requires assistance and we will tailor our deployment to fill this need."
McKinnon added he had conveyed to the government of Pakistan and publicly "expressed the support and concern felt by fellow Commonwealth citizens at this difficult time."
He said: "I urge other Commonwealth governments and the wider international community to continue to provide disaster relief to Pakistan in the form of food, tents, clothing and medicines."
The Secretariat will work closely with the medical team to respond to the needs on the ground, in Pakistan. Following the initial deployment, the project would look at reconstruction requirements and how best those needs could be met, said the sources.
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