COMMONWEATH SEC-GEN CALLS FOR AID OVER PAKISTAN'S FLOOD DISASTER

KUCHING, Malaysia, Aug 3 (Bernama) -- Commonwealth Secretary-General, Kamalesh Sharma, has appealed to the international community to come to the aid of Pakistan in the wake of the monsoon floods that hit the country.

In a letter to Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, he said, the
Commonwealth had watched with deep distress the appalling loss of lives and the
continued extensive dislocation which had come in the wake of the flooding in
the north-west of the country.

"We send our sincere sympathy and good wishes and hope the Commonwealth and the
wider international community will come forward to assist Pakistan in these
trying circumstances," he said in a statement issued by the Commonwealth
Secretariat in London, which was e-mailed to Bernama, here, the capital of East
Malaysia state of Sarawak, Tuesday.

The Secretary-General said the Commonwealth expressed solidarity with the
government and people "at this extremely difficult time."

"We also salute the courage of the Pakistani people in the face of such
adversity," he said in reference to the worst monsoon floods in living memory
that had killed over 1,000 people and affected one million in the north-west of
Pakistan.
-- BERNAMA