RIYADH: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has urged the international community to foster global cooperation and ensure the equitable distribution of resources to have an inclusive and fair global economy that alleviates human suffering.
Speaking at a high-level roundtable discussion titled “Is Humanity Heading in the Right Direction” in Riyadh on Tuesday, the Prime Minister emphasised the importance of technology sharing and collaboration across various sectors—such as agriculture, climate change, and industry—to generate employment and promote sustainable development.
Highlighting the urgent challenge of climate change, PM Sharif noted that Pakistan is among the ten countries most severely affected by its impacts, despite contributing less than one percent to global carbon emissions.
The Prime Minister added that Pakistan had sustained economic losses worth $130 billion due to climate-induced disasters.
“Our emission is less than a fraction of 1% and yet in 2022 we faced devastating [cloudbursts], floods and storms,” he said.
The Prime Minister added that the 2022 floods had submerged vast areas of land and destroyed crops, forcing the country to rely on external borrowing for reconstruction.
“It is like going up the ladder and then coming back down,” he said, lamenting that the gains made by the nation were reversed by repeated natural calamities.
The Prime Minister pointed out that Pakistan’s only option to rebuild flood-affected regions had been through loans, highlighting the nation’s economic vulnerability to climate-induced disasters.
However, PM Sharif emphasised that relying on borrowings was not a sustainable solution, reaffirming Pakistan’s determination to “stand on its own feet” through self-reliance and resilience-building efforts.
He also urged the international community to share the burden and come to the aid of humanity.
PM Sharif noted that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had been fully digitalised and reaffirmed his government’s determination to combat corruption “with full force.”
The Prime Minister further observed that Pakistan’s youthful population — accounting for around 60 per cent of the total — represented both a challenge and an opportunity.
He called on the global community to support developing nations such as Pakistan, which suffer the consequences of climate disasters despite contributing minimally to the problem.
