Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Correspondent Fahad Desmukh reports from Karachi on the relief aid the U.S. is providing for Pakistan’s flood.

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

DAVID BARON: The United States has provided a total of 10 million dollars in relief aid for Pakistan. And, as Fahad Desmukh tells us from Karachi, that’s not all.

FAHAD DESMUKH:  The US has also provided rescue boats, water filtration units, and pre-fabricated steel bridges. Rick Snelsire is a spokesman for the US embassy in Islamabad. He says the assistance doesn’t stop there.

RICK SNELSIRE:  We freed up seven US government owned helicopters. So far they’ve rescued over 700 people from rooftops all around the flood affected areas. And then beginning on Saturday we began flying in large quantities of Halal meals ready to eat.

DESMUKH: Snelsire says this effort is not about winning over Pakistanis, who are generally suspicious of the US.

SNELSIRE: We’re responding to a humanitarian crisis because we are able to do it in a way that few other countries can. I mean, if this same situation happened in a country where the perception of the United States was much better, we would still do it.

DESMUKH: But others say this is an opportunity that the Americans could capitalize on. Zafar Hilaly is a former advisor on foreign affairs.

ZAFAR HILALY: Here is an opportunity for the United States to demonstrate that it is not only weapons and it is not only troops that they send to fight the Taliban, but in fact the United States wishes to improve the lot of the people of that area.

DESMUKH: Pakistani flood victims have to turn somewhere for help. And so far, they have found the response of Pakistan’s poorly resourced government inadequate. This could provide an opportunity for Islamist charities, some with suspected ties to militant groups, to step in. Five years ago, Islamist groups played a key role in the relief efforts after an earthquake in Kashmir killed 75,000 people. But so did the United States, with tens of millions of dollars in emergency assistance. The US saved countless lives and generated considerable goodwill among Pakistanis. But former government official Hilaly says those positive feelings did not last long.

HILALY: I think what had happened after the earthquake is the feeling that the American pressure to make Pakistan do what it does not want to do or what it is incapable of doing.

DESMUKH: Meanwhile the US embassy has announced that more humanitarian aid, over and above the ten million dollars already pledged, will be earmarked as necessary. For The World, I’m Fahad Desmukh from Karachi, Pakistan.

BARON: You can find comprehensive coverage of the flooding in Pakistan online at BBC.com/news.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.