President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday said the banks should provide necessary financial services to farmers and small businessmen to help them restore their businesses vital to revival of economic activities in the flood-effected areas.
He said the government will provide free seed to farmers to grow canola early next month in these areas and also distribute the first instalment of Rs 5000 relief assistance per family before Eid. These are also the areas in which the banks can play a positive and constructive role for speedy implementation, he added.
Spokesperson to the President, Farhatullah Babar said while briefing the media that President Asif Ali Zardari today (Wednesday) asked the country's banking and finance sector to use their influence in the areas of their operations and actively participate in the flood relief and rehabilitation efforts by sensitising the people and State agencies to the colossal damage and the ways to recover the lost ground.
President Zardari said the country had to face great human and infrastructure losses due to the current unprecedented floods and around 75 districts were affected with an affected population of 15 million. He said 2.6 million acres of cultivated land was affected with a crop loss of Rs 200 billion. The President said the agriculture and housing were the most seriously impacted areas and the banks were saddled with the social responsibility of pressing into service their professional skills for addressing the issues in these two sectors.
The president said that a scheme should be put in place to provide relief to the existing borrowers of the devastated areas and provide them fresh financing for the revival of economic activities. Moreover, President has also issued instructions to the House Building Finance Corporation (HBFC) for providing financial services for the reconstruction of damaged housing sector in the flood-affected areas.
Farhatullah Babar said the President directed the HBFC that while providing financial services for the reconstruction of damaged housing sector, the Corporation should also undertake search for suitable technologies that enabled the rebuilt houses withstand earthquakes and floods. The President called for a separate briefing on rebuilding the destroyed dwelling units using modern technology to make them disaster proof.
"While we hope that the worst floods were caused by freak weather and will not recur, we should also keep in mind that it may have been caused by climatic change and have to brace ourselves for such disasters in the future as well." He said this while addressing the heads of banks and the banking and finance sector professionals who had been invited to the Presidency for a special emergency meeting on the flood relief and rehabilitation and the role the bankers can play in it. In the interactive session that followed the heads of the country's banks and financial institutions offered several suggestions about their role in mitigating the effects of calamity and assured the President that driven by their sense of social responsibility they will rise to the expectations of the nation.
Those who were present during the meeting included among others Mrs Shafqat Sultana, President First Woman Bank, Syed Ali Raza, President NBP, R A Chughtai, President SME Bank, Muhammad Zaka Ashraf, President ZTBL, Rafiquddin Mehkari, President Askari Bank, S M Talib Rizvi, Group Head Bank Alfalah, Zakir Mahmood, President HBL, Abbas D Habib, CE Bank Al-Habib, Atif R Bokhari, President UBL, Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht, VP Citibank and Khalid Sherwani, President ABL. The meeting was also attended by Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Minister for Food & Agriculture, Rehman A Malik, Interior Minister, Syed Sumsam Ali Bokhari, Minister of State for Information, Salman Faruqui, Secretary General to the President, Secretary Planning & Development, Secretary EAD and Spokesperson to the President Farhatullah Babar besides other senior officials of the concerned departments.