Christians seek Pakistan debt cancellation

A group of South Asian Christians in Britain is pressing for the cancellation of Pakistan’s international debts as the recovery from this summer’s devastating floods looks set to run into years.

The South Asian Forum of the Evangelical Alliance warns that life-saving relief efforts for some 20 million flood victims could be jeopardised if the Pakistani government is forced to send almost a third of its annual budget revenues to foreign creditors.

The group’s founder, Ram Gidoomal, said that the Pakistani floods had been met with less publicity and fewer calls to action than the Indian Ocean tsunami, Kashmir floods and Haiti earthquake, despite the UN’s estimation that the number of people affected is higher than the three disasters combined.

“It’s no surprise that people are fed up hearing about war, strife and disasters in Pakistan,” said Mr Gidoomal. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the sum total of my native country and it also doesn’t mean that the suffering of 20 million Pakistani people isn’t any more or less important than those of other nationalities.

He is urging British Christians to add their names to an online petition to be handed to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund by advocacy group Avaaz. The petition calls for the cancellation of Pakistan’s international debt so that the country can focus on recovering from the floods.

Mr Gidoomal, originally from Pakistan’s Sindh province, said: “Servicing debts to international donors currently costs Pakistan around $3 billion annually.

“This is almost triple what the country spends on healthcare and is shocking when you consider that 38 per cent of the country’s five-year-olds are underweight, more than half the population is illiterate and two thirds live below the poverty line.”

The call comes days after the UN launched a $2bn appeal to help the stricken country, its biggest ever humanitarian appeal. UN Secretary General said at the launch that the Pakistan floods were the worst natural disaster the UN had ever had to respond to.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg told the Liberal Democrat party conference this week that Britain would “dramatically increase” its aid provision from the £60 million it has already provided for flood victims.