In his opening remarks at the meeting of Ministerial Meeting of Friends of Democratic Pakistan held at Foreign Office the Foreign Minister said, "Today we are having to divert significant resources from our development programme towards fighting the militancy and in the immediate term we need budgetary support so that our poverty alleviation and development programmes continue uninterruptedly."
The meeting was also being attended by Special Representative of U.S. President Obama for Pakistan and Afghanistan Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, representatives from the members of the FODP, World Bank and other international financial organizations.
Foreign Minister Qureshi in his opening remarks further said the third FODP Ministerial meeting will be held in Brussels on 15 October this year.
This forum, he said, is usefully serving to identify and discuss priority areas for FODP partners to engage bilaterally or multilaterally through the World Bank Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Pakistan.
Qureshi said Pakistan has suffered and continues to suffer enormously by terrorism and since 9/11 there have been 247 suicide attacks in Pakistan killing over 3000 civilians and injuring over 7000.
He said the evil forces of terrorism have not even spared mosques, other religious places and the shrine of a Sufi saint in Lahore. "We have lost over 2550 security personnel in our ongoing law enforcement operations," said the foreign minister.
He said, "Our cumulative economic losses are also substantial and according to conservative estimates, Pakistan has lost $43 billion in the last nine years and our exports and foreign investments have been badly hurt."
The Minister said Pakistan had to look after 2.5 million dislocated population from Malakand Division following the law enforcement operation there last year, and facilitated their return to their homes within a few months that speaks volumes of people's and institutions' inherent strengths.
Pakistan Suffers Losses Of $43b In War On Terror: Qureshi was first posted on July 17, 2010 at 7:16 pm.
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