Pakistan names flood aid oversight panel

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- A national council will oversee the distribution of aid for flood-affected Pakistanis, the country's prime minister, Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, said Thursday.

Gilani said the National Oversight Disaster Management Council, made up of people of "impeccable integrity," will ensure transparency in the distribution process to flood-ravaged regions of the country, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

"These respectable members of the council will ensure that the funds are distributed and utilized in a transparent manner and spent judiciously as per the requirements, without any discrimination to any area or province," Gilani told participants in a meeting of the National Disaster Management Commission.

Meanwhile, the United States will increase its aid to Pakistan to $150 million, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said Thursday. However, he said he didn't want to see relief funds fall into the hands of militants, Pakistan's English-language newspaper Dawn reported.

"We don't want (see) to additional ... extremists coming out of a crisis," Kerry said.

The Federal Flood Commission said at least 1,540 people died and 2,088 were injured in devastating, monsoon-driven floods. The flooding damaged or destroyed as many as 557,226 houses and affected at least 6.3 million people, the commission said, adding that 4 million acres of cropland and 4.6 million acres of property were affected.

The United Nations, which has complained the international community hasn't stepped up as quick enough or generously enough in donating to Pakistan, given the scale of the disaster, said donor countries have begun to come around.

"Watching this disaster unfold, the world increasingly understands its immense magnitude", said John

Holmes, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator. "I am glad that we now see a more positive response to the calls ... for increased and faster funding," he said.

Of the $459.7 million requested by the United Nations and its partners for relief activities, $227.8 million has been received so far, the United Nations said in a release. Pledges for $42.1 million more have also been made.