Pakistan army chief commends UAE aid team

Multan: General Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani, Chief of Army Staff, Pakistan, visited the UAE rescue and aid team in Pakistan on Tuesday morning.

Kiyani met the UAE team in Multan in Punjab province, where, in line with orders of the UAE leadership it is carrying out rescue operations in cooperation with Pakistani troops.

The UAE team is tasked with delivering aid to the flood areas and also assisting in delivering humanitarian materials from Multan to different locations.

Brigadier Abdul Rahman Bin Abdul Aziz, Head of the UAE Rescue Unit, received the Pakistani General, with a number of officers from the US rescue and aid team.

Kiyani conveyed the greetings of the Pakistani leadership and commended the role played by the UAE team in assisting the Pakistani people in their hardship as a result of the floods. Logisically, the UAE team is also airlifting and dropping humanitarian aid donated by other countries.

Brigadier Abdul Aziz informed General Kiyani that his unit had delivered 75 tons of humanitarian aid to flood victims.

"The UAE force is playing a major role in assisting about two million people affected in the Punjab region under the instructions of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The forces delivered relief materials to victims who were evacuated to safe areas as part of the UAE efforts to ease their suffering,'' he said.

Relief operations

The UAE Red Crescent Authority (RCA) has expanded its aid and relief operations to include the devastated areas in the Punjab province.

The RCA has intensified its relief efforts in coordination with the Pakistani Red Crescent Authority, as a follow up for the people living currently in tents after their areas were hit by the floods.

Khamis Mohammad Al Suwaidi, head of the RCA delegation stated in a press conference that was held in Multan that the RCA came to Pakistan upon the orders of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to assist Pakistanis to overcome the hardship and crisis resulted from the country's floods, and in response to the Pakistani help appeal.

A plane carrying 4 tons of food stuff, 11 tons of relief materials including tents, blankets and other commodities arrived in Pakistan, while another plane carried 36 tons of food, including baby food, clothes and medical relief stuff.

Relief and rescue stuff was also bought from the local market, where 16,000 food packages, 2500 tents, 6000 water bottles were distributed, while 150 tons of dates were sent from Karachi port to Multan.

Two medicals teams arrived in Islamabad yesterday and one team will be taking care of preventing the dispersal of diseases. Vaccines will also be given to 625,000 people in cooperation with UNICEF.