Over Rs 1.5 billion contributed by overseas Pakistanis since July

March 25, 2019: Overseas Pakistanis have so far contributed around over Rs 1.5 billion while local residents as well as institutions have donated some Rs 8.64 billion to the Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dam fund, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

A total of Rs 10.11bn was deposited in this charity fund in the last nine month, The Fundraising Status of Supreme Court of Pakistan and the Prime Minister of Pakistan Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand Dams Fund, showed on Monday.

The former Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar took the initiative of collecting donations by launching the fund on July 6 that was later joined by Prime Minister Imran Khan, making it a joint venture to overcome the country’s water scarcity.

Till March 25 of this year, according to the SBP, the overseas Pakistanis shared some 15 per cent of the total contribution for the construction of the dams.

Recently, millions of Rupees poured into the fund due to the efforts of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf led Government which was constantly raising the awareness for this noble cause in Pakistan and abroad.

Meanwhile, within Pakistan, the contributions were made through cheques, cash and mobile phone message service. An amount of Rs 140 million was received through SMS services of the four cellular phone service companies operating in the country, the country wise report of the SBP issued on March 20 said.

Many overseas Pakistanis had also sent their donations through debit and credit cards, while many others deposited money in the SBP Nostro account and commercial banks overseas.

Most of the foreign donations, around Rs542m, came from the Pakistanis living in the US while around Rs368m from those living in the UK.

Other major donations by the overseas Pakistanis came from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Switzerland, Norway, Turkey, Japan, China, Sweden, Russia, Brazil, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Austria, Brunei, Denmark, the Netherland, Belgium, Finland, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Fiji, Ireland, South Korea, Thailand, Oman, Jordan, the Maldives, Nigeria, Peru, Tunisia and the Philippines.

(APP)