Describing the need for assistance in earthquake-hit areas of NWFP and Azad Kashmir as "very urgent" and "grave", World Bank acting Vice President for South Asia region Dina Umali-Deininger on Thursday said the bank on its part was extending generous help to Pakistan to tide over the tragedy.
"The loss of life and destruction of infrastructure is just unimaginable," she stated this in her address to a large fund-raiser gathering held at the World Bank.
The event was organised by the Committee for Global Relief (CGR) in association with the School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Besides Pakistan Ambassador Jehangir Karamat, those attending were Congressmen, diplomats from Sri Lanka, India and Afghanistan, WB officials, former diplomats Robin Rafel and Karl Inderfurth, academicians Dr Jessica Einhorn, and Dr Walter Andersen, former WB official Karl D. Jackson, and Theresa Rhodes, head of NGO, CARE.
Referring to the assistance extended by the World Bank, the official said besides the $470 million immediate support, the bank approved earlier Thursday a $200 million supplemental financing for the government of Pakistan. "An additional support of $270 million is expected to be presented to the board shortly - some time next week."
A five-minute video documentary on the massive October 8 earthquake in South Asia and its vast scale destruction in NWFP and Azad Kashmir, in particular, and some parts of Afghanistan and occupied Kashmir was watched, earlier, in pin drop silence.