India has still not announced any aid to flood-hit Pakistan

India hasn’t announced any relief aid so far for Pakistan, its flood-hit neighbour.

Flash floods and landslides have wreaked havoc on Pakistan, leaving millions of people homeless and more than 1,000 dead. In what is believed to be a “monsoon on steroids,” a third of Pakistan, with an estimated population of 230 million, is still underwater, as the rains have created a crisis of unimaginable proportions.

As millions of people across Pakistan struggled since mid-June to deal with the floods, it took the Indian government weeks to express condolences. It was not until Aug. 29 that Indian prime minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to offer his sympathy

Why India hasn’t offered help to Pakistan?

Strained diplomatic ties are behind India’s late and still-inadequate response.

The relationship between the two nations has an unpleasant history of tensions that has often impacted trade ties. The stresses further increased after Imran Khan, then-prime minister of Pakistan, suspended bilateral trade with India in August 2019.

But desperate times yield desperate measures. A day after Modi “hoped” for an early restoration of normalcy across the border, Pakistan expressed its willingness to resume bilateral ties.

Citing anonymous sources, reports in the Indian media have revealed that Indian authorities aren’t willing to mend trade ties just yet. But the possibility of offering aid on “humanitarian grounds” cannot be ruled out. “India has said it is ‘open’ to sending vegetables and other food items, as well as medicines and essential items to Pakistan, on a ‘case-to-case’ basis depending on the ‘kind of request’ that gets communicated from Islamabad to New Delhi,” The Print, an online news outlet, reported, quoting unnamed sources.

India has yet to release an official statement about humanitarian aid to Pakistan.

UN seeks $160 million in aid for Pakistan

Even though India hasn’t offered any help yet, the United Nations (UN), on Aug. 29, launched a global appeal for $160 million in aid for Pakistan.

“Over 1,100 people, including over 350 children, have lost their lives, more than 1,600 people have been injured, over 287,000 houses have been fully and 662,000 partially destroyed, over 735,000 livestock have perished, and 2 million acres of crops have been adversely impacted, besides severe damage to communications infrastructure,” the UN said in its statement.

So far, the UK, the US, China, the UAE, Qatar, and Turkey have already dispatched aid to Pakistan, and many others have promised help. The International Monetary Fund announced a $1.1 billion bailout tranche on Tuesday, as part of ongoing negotiations with Pakistan, which was already steeped in an economic crisis.