Thaindian News

New Delhi/Islamabad, Aug 19 (IANS) With Pakistan dithering over accepting India’s offer of $5 million aid for flood victims, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday renewed the aid offer when he spoke to his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani and conveyed his sorrow over the tragedy.

Manmohan Singh expressed sorrow and condoled the deaths due to the devastating floods in Pakistan, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement in New Delhi.

The prime minister told Gilani that the government of India had already made an offer of assistance and was ready to do more to assist in the relief effort.

Calling for a larger regional solidarity in the face of natural calamities, Manmohan Singh said that all of South Asia should rise to the occasion and extend every possible help to the people of Pakistan affected by the tragedy.

India had Aug 13 offered $5 million aid to Pakistan that is grappling with the worst-ever floods that have left over 1,600 people dead and affected over 20 million.

But Pakistan has yet to revert to India on accepting the aid, said an official. If Pakistan accepts aid, the modalities will have to be worked out for sending the aid across the border, the official added. India has also indicated that it was ready to route the aid through UN agencies.

Pakistan’s Dawn News reported Thursday that Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has thanked India for offering the aid. Qureshi, who is on a visit to the US, profusely thanked India, it reported.

Sources in the Pakistan foreign ministry have said India’s offer is being considered. “We have not rejected the offer outright and a decision would be made soon,” a senior official had been quoted as saying.

In Islamabad, Ansar Burney, Pakistan’s former minister for human rights, has urged the Pakistan government to accept the donation offered by India “in the greater interest of peace and love”. On the one hand they are begging the world for help and accepting all donations and on the other they are not accepting a donation of “love and peace” from India, Burney said.

India would like Pakistan to see the aid offer as an important gesture to create a positive atmosphere despite bitter recriminations that followed the July 15 talks between the foreign ministers of the two countries.

In the wake of a massive earthquake in October 2005, India had sent three consignments of relief material including tents, blankets and medicines. This was the first time Indian Air Force (IAF) planes had landed in Islamabad to deliver relief material. According to some reports, Pakistan did not use the Indian aid.