World must help developing countries fight climate change: PM

ISLAMABAD  –  Caretaker Prime Minis­ter Anwaarul Haq Kakar Thursday inaugurated the newly-established state-of-the-art

National Emergen­cies Operation Centre (NEOC) to ensure coor­dinated efforts to man­age the natural disas­ters in the future.

Established at the Na­tional Disaster Man­agement Authority (NDMA) Headquarters, the Center would also help in disaster risk re­duction and mitigation of damages. The prime minister lauded the es­tablishment of NEOC and emphasized the importance of disaster resilient infrastructure and policy framework.

He said that despite being one of the least contributors of carbon emissions globally, Pa­kistan was one of the top countries affect­ed by climate change. “Climate change is a real challenge that will keep haunting our fu­ture generations unless we take such concrete steps,” he reiterated.

The prime minister said that the world need­ed to step forward and help developing coun­tries like Pakistan to cope up the adverse effects of climate change. He also praised the role of NCOC both in COVID-19 and 2022 floods.

In a briefing, Prime Minister Kakar was told that NEOC would serve as hub of all technologi­cal inputs related to cli­mate change, disasters management and pre­dictive modeling for national emergencies. First of its kind in Paki­stan and the region, this is Pakistan’s indigenously con­ceptualized capability, which will evolve capacity to predict future disasters with credence and accuracy about likely loca­tions, time of impact and dam­age intensity. It would gen­erate coordinated response, guiding lower tiers of provin­cial and district level disaster management authorities.

He presented key lessons from Pakistan’s extensive ex­posures to disaster and na­tional emergencies in the past and shared new vision of NDMA for pro-active man­agement of disasters through NEOC. The vision was prin­cipally approved by Prime Minister’s Office and all na­tional stakeholders of disas­ters response.

‘Pakistan to continue sup­porting Kashmiris’ Caretak­er Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Thursday, call­ing the Kashmir dispute an unfinished agenda of the par­tition, resolved that Pakistan would continue its political, moral and diplomatic sup­port to the people of Kashmir.

The prime minister, in a meeting with Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir Chaudhry Anwarul Haq, who called on him, said that Pakistan would stand by the Kash­miris until the issue was re­solved as per the aspirations of the Kashmiri people as well as the resolutions of the UN Security Council. The AJK prime minister lauded PM Kakar for raising the voice in support of Kashmiri people at the forum of the United Nations General Assembly.

“We, the people of Kashmir, are grateful to you for expos­ing Indian atrocities in Oc­cupied Kashmir before the world,” the AJK prime min­ister added. ‘Outgoing na­val chief pays farewell call on PM’ Outgoing Chief of Na­val Staff Admiral Muham­mad Amjad Khan Niazi paid a farewell call on Caretak­er Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar here on Thurs­day, the PM Office said. PM Kakar lauded the services of the outgoing naval chief for his leadership of the institu­tion and playing a key role in making the country’s de­fence impregnable.

Meanwhile, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Thursday held a meeting with business­man Haji Nawab Damar who called on him here at the PM House. The meeting focused on the problems faced by the trader community in Ba­lochistan particularly Ziarat, Harnai, and Sanjawi, the PM Office said. The prime min­ister also met tribal chief Sardar Farid Damar and so­cial worker Lal Khan Kakar.