The Chinese Consul General in Karachi, Li Bijian, on Friday presented a cheque of $100,000 to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah for the development of Karachi and 500,000 RMB (Chinese currency) for the CM fund for the flood-affected people.
During their meeting at the CM House, Shah said well-reputed people from the private sector had been inducted into the company constituted for the construction of the houses that had collapsed during the heavy rains and floods in the province so that transparency could be ensured in the reconstruction process.
“The funds raised or taken as loans from the lending agencies for the construction of the houses of the flood-affected people would be utilized transparently and its audit would be conducted by a well-reputed firm,” the CM said to the Chinese envoy.
Shah invited the international community, philanthropists, friendly countries, and multinational companies to come over and select a locality or a village for the reconstruction of the damaged houses and undertake the work from the contractors, and the provincial government would extend them all kinds of support. He said the heavy rains and floods had damaged 3.8 million houses for which his government had negotiated a loan of $500 million to reconstruct the houses, but the number of houses to be reconstructed was so big that more help and assistance was needed.
The consul general told Shah that a team of their experts was scheduled to visit the flood-affected areas of the Sukkur division to survey the collapsed houses and then select the areas to reconstruct the houses. The chief minister thanked the Chinese government and the people for helping the Sindh government in the rehabilitation of the affected people.
