ASEEFA Bhutto-Zardari, the youngest daughter of President Asif Ali Zardari, visited a flood rehabilitation housing project on Friday in the Shaheed Benazirabad district of Sindh that accompanies a delegation of World Bank officials.
WB officials included their managing director Anna Bejerde and country director Najy Benhassine. Sindh’s prime minister Syed Murad Ali Shah also accompanied them when they visited the flood rehabilitation housing project in the Nasar Muhammad Laghari village in the district of Shaheed Benazirabad.
This project, under the Housing Program of the Sindh peoples for those affected by the flood (SPHF), aims to rebuild houses destroyed by the devastating floods of 2022, said a statement from the CM House.
During the visit, Aseefa and Bejerde distributed certificates of property rights to owners and interacted with female members of the village reconstruction committee, while the latter showed their craft work. The committee was informed that 32 houses were destroyed in the village and that they had now been rebuilt.
Bejede reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to support the government of Sindh in flood recovery efforts, praising the resilience of local people and the dedication of leadership.
She emphasized that sustainable rehabilitation at community can be achieved despite climate change challenges.
ASEEFA stressed that granting women’s property rights under the SPHF project is a historical socio -economic empowerment initiative of the Sindh government, significantly benefiting rural women.
The Sindh prime minister said that more than 2.4 million homes were destroyed in the floods of 2022. He said that the Bank initially provided $ 500 million to begin recovery, then increased financing by $ 450 million in two years. Murad said this assistance helped build 778,000 homes and assign $ 54.92 million for water, sanitation and hygiene, benefiting 66,691 families in 1,000 villages.
The SPFF CEO, Khalid Mahmood Sheikh, informed them that 104,822 houses were destroyed in Shaheed Benazirabad; Around 60,000 are under construction, while almost 40,000 are completed.
He said that in every Sindh, more than 111,000 disabled people receive accessible houses, and more than 800,000 women have opened bank accounts for the first time, thus promoting financial inclusion. He developed that the program provides safe refuge for more than six million people and creates more than one million new jobs.
Later they also visited the Basic Health Unit Jam Sahib in Shaheed Benazirabad.
Earlier this month, ASEEFA distributed documents owned by the houses to people who affect floods in the village of Daur Taluka by Mirza Farrukh Baig.
Accompanied by the Minister of Health of Sindh, Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho, visited the village and met the women of the families affected by the floods. He sat with some of the families in their newly built houses and asked about their problems.
ASEEFA distributed documents owned by houses among women beneficiaries of the free residential project. The women informed her of her problems, which she said they would be solved.
“I have come here on behalf of the president of PPP, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, to give him the property documents … now he has his own roof with property rights … I have fulfilled the promise my grandfather made and former prime minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,” he said.
