ISLAMABAD: President Arif Alvi said that if all stakeholders agree, he can voluntarily arbitrate between stakeholders on key issues facing country, including date of next elections, consensus-based economic charter and way to proceed with key appointments.

President Dr. Arif Alvi called upon all governments and political parties to pause politics and urged all stakeholders to launch a nationwide drive to mobilise people of Pakistan, businesses, civil society and humanitarian organisations to assist civil and military administrations in their rescue and relief efforts to rehabilitate flood victims and for reconstruction of damaged infrastructure.

President made these remarks during a meeting with senior media-persons, who called on him here at Aiwan-e-Sadr. Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Shami, Suhail Warraich, Gauhar Zahid Malik, Awais Rauf and Nawab Kaifee attended meeting, a press release issued by President's Media Wing here said. Talking to senior journalists about his visit to flood-hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Southern Punjab, and low-lying areas of Sindh and Balochistan.

 President said that this unprecedented catastrophe had been induced due to global warming and climate change whereas Pakistan contributed less than one percent to global carbon emissions. He said that developed world, being major contributor to global warming and climate change, should proportionally bear burden of rescue and relief operations, reconstruction of damaged communication infrastructure, rebuilding the destroyed houses and compensating people for lost property, livestock and standing crops.

President highlighted that climate catastrophe had affected more than 33 million people, over 735,000 livestock had perished, 2 million acres of crops had been inundated and communications infrastructure had been severely damaged.

Published in The Daily National Courier, September, 03 2022

Like Business on Facebook, follow @DailyNCourier on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.