Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed the authorities concerned to immediately dispatch two planeloads of relief goods to Gaza and Lebanon, and called for using both land and aerial routes for the aid supply. The prime minister, chairing a meeting to review the relief activities for Palestine and Lebanon at PM House in Islamabad on Tuesday, asked for improving coordination with Pakistan’s ambassadors in Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt to ensure a better supply of relief goods. Stressing for an accelerated pace of relief aid, he called for ensuring that the relief goods reached the deserving people. Prime Minister Shehbaz reiterated his appeal to the countrymen and the expatriates to donate generously to the PM Fund Fund for Gaza. He also instructed the relevant authorities to run an awareness drive to acquaint the people with the Relief Fund established by the government. In the briefing on the relief activities, the prime minister was told that relief goods including winter tents, clothes, blankets, medicines and eatables were being dispatched for the people suffering the Israeli barbarism in Gaza and Lebanon.

It was told that the Israeli attacks and siege were impeding the supply of relief goods to the affected areas. The meeting was told that the government would also facilitate the NGOs desiring to send relief aid to Gaza and Lebanon. Federal ministers Ahsan Iqbal, Ahad Khan Cheema, and Attaullah Tarar, Minister of State Shiza Fatima Khawaja, Special Assistant to PM Tariq Fatemi, chairmen of the Higher Education Commission, and National Disaster Management Authority and senior officers attended the meeting. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday lauded the officers and personnel of the Pakistan Navy for foiling an attempt to smuggle a huge quantity of Indian-made narcotics pills and drugs. The prime minister, in a statement, said that the Pakistan Navy was not only safeguarding the maritime boundaries of Pakistan but also playing an effective role in curbing illegal activities in the region. The whole nation, including me, feels proud of the Pakistan Navy’s officers and personnel deployed to safeguard the country’s maritime boundaries.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan