Pakistan said it will clamp down on charities linked to Islamist militants amid fears their involvement in flood relief, exploiting anger against the government, will undermine the fight against groups like the Taliban.
Islamist charities have moved in swiftly to fill the vacuum left by a government overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster and struggling to reach millions of people in dire need of shelter, food and clean water.
It would not be the first time the government has announced restrictions against charities tied to militant groups. Critics say any banned organisations often re-emerge under new names, with authorities uninterested in stopping their operations.
"The banned organisations are not allowed to visit flood-hit areas," Interior Minister Rehman Malik said.
"We will arrest members of banned organisations collecting funds and will try them under the Anti-Terrorism Act."
Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari and a senior US senator warned yesterday that militants were trying to promote their cause during the floods, similar to what happened after an earthquake in Pakistan Kashmir in 2005.
More than 4 million Pakistanis have been made homeless by nearly three weeks of floods, making the critical task of securing greater amounts of aid more urgent.
Eight million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
The floods have marooned villages, killed livestock, destroyed power stations and destroyed roads and bridges - lifelines for villagers - just as the government had made some progress in stabilising the country through offensives against Taliban insurgents.
Weather officials said floods could recede in Punjab province but there was a danger of more rain in Sindh province over the next week. These provinces, where the majority of Pakistanis live, have been hit hardest by the floods.
"All the rivers in Punjab have fallen back to normal flow and there was no forecast of any flood-generating rains across the country," said Ajmal Shah, director of Pakistan's Flood Forecasting Division.
The United States led a stream of pledges of more funds for Pakistan during a special meeting of the UN General Assembly yesterday. US secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised a further $60 million (€46 million), bringing to more than $150 million (€116 million) the contribution Washington would make toward emergency flood relief.
Speaking for the European Union, Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere promised a further €30 million on top of €110 million already committed. British Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said London was doubling its contribution to nearly $100 million (€78 million).
The United Nations has issued an appeal for $459 million (€357 million), of which Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said about 60 per cent had been pledged.
US Senator John Kerry, who visited flood-hit areas with Zardari yesterday, said action must be taken to prevent anyone from exploiting frustrations.
"We need to address that rapidly to avoid their impatience boiling over, and people exploiting that impatience and I think it's important for all of us to understand that challenge," Mr Kerry said, in a clear reference to the Taliban.
"We also share security concerns."
Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said he had been assured the UN's target of $460 million (€360 million) of aid would be met.
Highlighting the wider problems facing Pakistan, 14 people were killed yesterday in different incidents of targeted killings in Karachi after a Pashtun political leader was gunned down, a sign of underlying ethnic and political tensions in the country's biggest city.
About one-third of Pakistan has been hit by the floods, with waters stretching tens of kilometres from rivers.
The United States needs a stable Pakistan, which it sees as the most important ally in the war against militancy, especially in neighbouring Afghanistan, where a Taliban insurgency is raging.
Mr Zardari, who drew a hail of criticism after he left on a trip to meet the leaders of Britain and France as the disaster unfolded, also said militants could capitalise on the floods.
In a sign of growing concerns over the ramifications of the floods, Kerry said $200 million (€156 million) from the $7.5 billion (€5.8 billion) US aid package for Pakistan over five years, which he co-authored, would be diverted to the relief effort.
Pakistan officials are due to meet the International Monetary Fund next week for talks on easing growth and fiscal deficit targets following the country's worst ever floods.
Pakistan turned to the IMF in 2008 for emergency financing to avert a balance of payments crisis and shore up reserves, agreeing to a set of conditions including revenue targets.
The IMF meetings will start on August 23rd and were scheduled for even before the floods began. In May, Pakistan received $1.13 billion (€0.8 billion), the fifth tranche of an $11.3 billion (€8 billion) IMF loan.
Reuters