Secretary General Speech

Date: 11/01/2011

Your Excellency, Prime Minister Syed Yousauf Raza Gilani , General (retd) Nadeem Ahmad , Chairman NDMA Hounorable Heads of OIC Diplomatic missions in Islamabad Distinguished Guests Ladies and Gentlemen Asalamu Aliakum At the outset, let me take this opportunity to thank His Excellency the Prime Minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, for accepting our invitation to attend this humanitarian event, despite his tight schedule. I welcome the distinguished representatives of OIC member states in Islamabad, dignitaries and Excellencies who have taken out time to grace this occasion to express solidarity with our brothers and sisters in need of our help and prayers in flood affected areas of Pakistan. The OIC Ten year Programme of Action adopted by the 3rd Extraordinary Islamic Summit Conference in Makkah in 2005 and the new OIC Charter have enabled the OIC to work with a new vigour for addressing the challenges of the 21st century in areas such as humanitarian assistance, human rights, disaster management, poverty alleviation and preventing and combating diseases. Subsequent to the unprecedented floods in Pakistan last year, the OIC was one of the earliest international organizations that mobilized its Member States and civil society for relief and rehabilitation assistance for the flood affected people. I still recall the horrifying glimpses of disastrous floods and the consequences faced by the Pakistani nation in 2010 when I visited the flood hit areas along with Pakistani officials. The relief and rehabilitation efforts by the Government of Pakistan, NMDA, international community and civil society to provide humanitarian assistances for more than 20 million flood-affected people have indeed been laudable. The disbursement and distribution of funds by the Government of Pakistan to flood victims through the Waten Cards, is the world’s largest fund disbursement scheme for disaster affected people to help them with reconstruction. The disaster has been stark reminder of the need to establish a sustainable OIC mechanism for disaster management and humanitarian assistance. We need the support of the Member States for the realization of such a mechanism at the earliest. Today we are glad to inaugurate a model village comprised of 100 cemented houses that will be built in D G Khan district of Punjab as a pilot project of our initiative to construct a total of 600 houses in major flood-stricken provinces. I am pleased to see some of the beneficiaries here in front of us and we’ll soon visit the field to handover the completed houses to all our brothers and sisters. This program will be implemented by Youth Parliament of Pakistan in close consultation with all concerned governmental departments including NDMA. In this event, we are also announcing the designation of Mr. Abrar ul Haq ; Pakistan's National Celebrity and a renowned artist in the sub-continent as " OIC Humanitarian Ambassador ", in recognition for his excellent social work in Pakistan and beyond . We need more and more people like Abrar who can join hands with the governments and international organizations such as the OIC in their noble humanitarian mission. We expect that Abrar will be a valuable asset for the whole Ummah and we’ll seek his support to promote the OIC's humanitarian causes not only in Pakistan but all OIC member countries. I believe together we all can bring a change that is the call of the time to further assist our Pakistani brothers and sisters. I am sure that the people of Pakistan will overcome the devastating impacts of this disaster with resilience and determination and we have every confidence in their abilities to rebuild their communities in short span of time. I would like to conclude by once again thanking the Prime Minister of Pakistan for his presence at this event which is a testimony of his Government's full commitment towards rehabilitation of the flood-affected people .

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