Muslim Aid Country Director Khobaib A Vahedy urged IMF and the World Bank to ease or wave off debts of Pakistan in this emergency situation as level of damages and devastation caused by the unprecedented flash floods in Pakistan is biggest in the living memory. He was speaking in the emergency meeting of relief organisations of Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) member states which was held on the other day in a local hotel in Islamabad.  
The meeting was co-chaired by the OIC Secretary General H.E. Prof. Dr. Ekmeleddin Ihasanoglu and the Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mahmood Qureshi. The main agenda of this emergency meeting was to help coordinate flood relief and plan rehabilitation and the emergency meeting of international NGOs convened by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Islamabad on 29 August 2010.
The OIC Secretary General, Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu received situational reports from the National Disaster Management Authority of Pakistan (NDMA), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Islamic Conference Humanitarian Affairs Department (OIC-ICHAD), and other international NGOs.
 
The meeting also discussed the efforts to mobilise assistance and consider mechanisms for coordination and information sharing among NGOs and the Government. These deliberations will identify the current gaps, needs and challenges faced by relief organisations, said Muslim Aid Country Director.
During the meeting Muslim Aid Country Director Khobaib A Vahedy said that IMF and the World Bank should ease or wave off debts of Pakistan in this emergency situation. While responding to Muslim Aid suggestion, Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that Government is working on the issue of some financial settlements and we will ask IMF and World Bank to relax some issues regarding debts of Pakistan.
 With this unprecedented humanitarian crisis facing Pakistan, collaborative work with NGOs and the Government of Pakistan is a must for speediest and effective relief

operations. Considering that over 8 million people have to be reached and put back on their feet, speed and efficiency is of utmost importance, Khobaib further said.
The international NGOs, central and provincial governments and most of all the Pakistani civil society have to come together as one big humanitarian family and help the people of Pakistan get through this catastrophe, he added.
Programme Manager Emergency Muslim Aid UK Muhammad Bali and Programme Manager Emergency M Obaid Muslim Aid Bangladesh also attended the meeting.