ISLAMABAD, 20 November 2005 — Pakistan secured world aid pledges of $5.8 billion for rehabilitation and reconstruction in earthquake areas. A donors conference, the second in a series, was convened yesterday by Pakistan with active participation of the United Nations.

The sum exceeds Pakistan’s target of $5.2 billion after a deadly earthquake killed more than 73,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

“The results were better than expected ... we have received pledges worth $5.827 billion,” Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told a news conference after the donors meeting in Islamabad.

Pakistan is about $3 billion short of what it needed to rebuild houses, schools, hospitals, water and energy supplies, roads and civic administration. Aziz said $3.9 billion of the aid pledged was soft loans and $1.9 billion was grants.

The new pledges came after UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that survivors would die unless relief funds came soon.

“The pitiless Himalayan winter is almost upon us and growing more and more severe every week,” Annan told the conference which opened with a harrowing video of quake damage and survivors.

“We must sustain our efforts to keep people as healthy and as strong as possible until we can rebuild,” he told representatives from about 50 countries.

Aziz Praises Kingdom

Aziz made special reference to Saudi Arabia saying the Kingdom made a commitment of $573 million and of this commitment there are soft loans and grants without conditions. He said Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah took the task of helping Pakistan as a personal duty.

He sent relief goods, established a telethon and encouraged public and private sector Saudi organizations to extend maximum assistance to Pakistan.

President Pervez Musharraf praised India for its help and appealed to it to seize the opportunity the quake had given the two countries to resolve their dispute over Kashmir, the region hit hardest by the quake.

“Let us together solve the Kashmir dispute once and for all,” Musharraf said.

The neighbors opened five points on their heavily militarized, disputed border in Kashmir to help relief efforts and allow divided families to meet.

Rich nations and multilateral lenders pledged the lion’s share of the extra aid, but countries such as Afghanistan and Bangladesh also made contributions.

Thanking donors, Musharraf said it was now the turn of Pakistanis, at home and abroad, to ensure aid needs were fulfilled.

“I know that we are going to spend about $6 billion,” he said.

“Now that is a shortfall which we will make through government efforts and this is where I feel the people of Pakistan ... need to come forward.”

Musharraf told the conference of a “lost generation,” referring to how the quake destroyed schools, entombing classrooms.

A total of 400,000 homes and over 10,000 schools need to be rebuilt, he said.

Aid agencies say the relief effort is more daunting than for Asia’s tsunami. Helicopters are the only way to reach many survivors living high in the mountains.

— With input from agencies