Reported in The News today, Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani has ordered the cancellation of a banquet and seveal other public events in order to provide relief to flood victims.
Haqqani decided to cancel the banquet scheduled for Tuesday and also cancelled all public events involving significant expenditure. Instead, the ambassador is now hosting a town hall meeting of Pakistani Americans to organise fund-raising for the flood victims.
The Pakistani ambassador has already been active in pleading the case for securing US government and International Financial Institution funding for flood relief efforts.
He personally requested the State Department to provide US helicopters for the rescue of people trapped in the floods even before the instructions on the subject received from Islamabad, embassy sources said. In addition to helicopters, the US government has also committed $35 million for the flood relief efforts.
According to a report in Express Tribune, Haqqani was presented with ‘Pakistan Independence Day Award’ by a committee of Pakistani-Americans, but was unable to receive the award in person due to his preoccupation with flood relief coordination engagements.
