The president of flood-ravaged Pakistan says that militants could try to exploit the disaster's chaos and tap into seething anger among Pakistanis who feel that relief efforts have been slow and ineffectual.
Such concerns have also been expressed by officials in Washington, who are pledging to raise more money as Pakistan grapples with 20 million displaced citizens.
"All these catastrophes give strength to forces who do not want a state structure," said President Asif Ali Zardari, who spoke Thursday during a press conference with John Kerry, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"There is a possibility that the negative forces would exploit the situation … They would take the babies who have been made orphans and take them to their camps and train them as the terrorists of tomorrow," Zardari said.
Thursday marked a renewed push to bring global attention to the crisis, which is unfolding in the aftermath of severe flooding that began three weeks ago.
The U.S., Germany and Saudi Arabia announced new multimillion-dollar aid pledges, while the Asian Development Bank said it would redirect US$2 billion in loans so it could be used for reconstruction.
Bank director Juan Miranda questioned "what the Pakistani people will think" if they are not given the help that they need in a timely manner.
"We have to put every road and every bridge back into the shape where they should be," Miranda said.
The UN has called for an additional $460 million in emergency relief for Pakistan, and held an emergency session Thursday about the situation.
"This disaster is like few the world has ever seen," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at the meeting. "It requires a response to match. Pakistan needs a flood of support."
Prior to the meeting, donor countries had promised to give half of the $460 million target. Afterwards, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said he believed that goal "is going to be easily met," thanks in part to "$100 million plus" pledged by Saudi Arabia.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also said Washington will boost its contribution to $150 million.
Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon attended the special UN session. He said Ottawa will wait before disbursing further aid money to help Pakistanis affected by the flooding, adding that the government is "not closing any options to further assist the people of Pakistan in their hour of need."
Ottawa has so far pledged $33 million to the cause.
Situation on the ground
Kevin McCort, the president and CEO of CARE Canada, said the flooding has created unique challenges in different parts of Pakistan, leaving aid agencies trying to respond to many problems at the same time.
"In the north in the Swat Valley, we saw evidence where the flood waters are really quite torrential and quite violent, and actually destroyed much of what they hit on the way through -- taking towns and power structures and bridges out," McCort told CTV from Ottawa on Thursday morning, hours after returning from Pakistan.
"And in the lower lands, we saw…extensive flooding with hundreds of thousands of hectares underwater, homes submerged, walls collapsing and many people just seeking small patches of high ground."
Now that aid is beginning to flow into Pakistan more rapidly, there is a sense that progress is being made on the ground, albeit slowly.
"There's still significant parts of Pakistan unaffected -- Islamabad, Lahore, many of the major cities -- so you're able to purchase relief supplies in those areas and you can deliver it to where you need to," said McCort.
"The roads in many parts are still in good shape, there's lots of transport capacity."
Farhan Haq, an associate spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, concurred that the supply of aid to Pakistan is improving.
"We have been receiving an increased flow of funds to deal with the humanitarian crisis in Pakistan, but more is needed and quite urgently," Haq told CTV News Channel in a telephone interview from New York on Thursday morning.
The UN hopes to raise $464 million for relief in Pakistan, and the World Health Organization is seeking $56 million. So far, they each remain well below their targets.
Haq said that the initial pledges for aid may have been slower than expected because the flooding may not have been immediately identified as a major disaster.
"What Ban Ki-moon has said about this is that what happened in Pakistan was essentially a slow-moving catastrophe. It's not a one-day disaster like Haiti's earthquake and it's not the sort of thing where TV cameras pick it up as an instant emergency," said Haq.
To date, Ottawa has pledged $33 million in humanitarian assistance and equipment for the disaster.
With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
