FLOODS IN PAKISTAN

PAKISTAN FLOODS CAUSE 'HUGE LOSSES' TO CROPS

BBC News, August 12, 2010

Pakistan's floods have caused "huge losses" to its crops, the country's food minister has told the BBC.

Nazar Muhammad Gondal said significant amounts of the grain, sugarcane and rice harvests had been washed away.

Meanwhile a senior religious scholar has said that flood victims living in difficult conditions should not have to fast over the Muslim Ramadan period.

And Pakistan's UK envoy has denied that most of the money given for flood defences has been lost to corruption.

High Commissioner to London Wajid Hasan dismissed the allegation by pressure group Transparency International, and insisted his government was doing all it could to help people in need.

Floodwater triggered by heavy monsoon rains is still surging south along the Indus River, forcing people from their homes.

Food Minister Gondal said grain stocks had been destroyed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North West Frontier) province, but some remained in southern Punjab province.

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