The Government has directed the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) to formally sign Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the respective embassies which made pledges for reconstruction and rehabilitation in the earthquake affected areas in NWFP and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
EAD sources told Business Recorder on Monday that so far the government has received pledges of more than $6.2 billion from different countries and donor agencies.
However, when asked about possible double counting in the pledges, they said, "We are confident that 95 percent figures given are accurate. Yes, there is a possibility of some minute discrepancies. However; we are contacting these embassies to fine-tune the final amounts of the pledges within next couple of days." There may be some countries whose pledges may have some minute errors, they added.
For example, they said, in the case of Turkey, immediately after October 8 it had made some pledge but when, during the conference, it pledged $150 million, it created confusion, as it was not clear whether the pledge made earlier was beside the newly pledged amount. However, after the conference it was cleared that the earlier pledged amount was included in the total amount.
During the conference, total pledges amounted to $5.827 billion, including $3.9 billion in soft loans and $1.9 billion in grants. The grants included cash and in kind donations to NGOs, the AJK and NWFP governments and contributions to President's Relief Fund for reconstruction and rehabilitation in the quake-hit areas.
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