Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari said on Friday he is willing to consider negotiations with the Taliban in his country a statement that came amid accusations he has failed to do enough to tackle terrorism.
As Pakistan struggles with its worst floods in 80 years, much has been made in the West of the influence of hard-line Islamist charities providing relief in a region where the US is trying to win hearts and minds. But in Pakistan, the hope appears simply to be to get as much help to the region as possible – and quickly.

On Friday, the United States announced an additional $25 million for flood relief in Pakistan, taking its total contribution to $35 million. At the same time, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a group banned by the United Nations Security Council for its links with the militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed to be behind the Mumbai (Bombay) attacks in India, has some 3,000 volunteers working around the country and is operating nine medical camps, he said.

The floods have claimed thousands lives, displaced more than 4 million people, and affected as many as 12 million, as waters spread from the country’s militancy-affected northwest through the bread-basket of Punjab. As far as Sindh, home to Karachi, the country’s financial hub, river banks are bursting.

“Our main focus is toward central Punjab and Sindh now,” says Zia-ur-Rehman, of Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority. Punjab is Pakistan's agricultural hub where UN World Food Program officials estimate that 80 percent of the country’s food stock has been depleted. About 70 villages in Sukkur area of Sindh have been flooded in the past 24 hours, according to the Pakistan Navy.

Heavy rains are expected to continue in flood-affected areas over the next 36 hours and are likely to hamper rescue efforts.

Indeed, US military personnel waiting to fly Chinook helicopters to areas cut off by flooding in Swat were grounded because of stormy weather.

Mussarat Ahmed Zeb, a resident of Saidu Sharif in Swat, told the CSMonitor that little aid has reached those residents of Upper Swat cut off by road after several bridges were swept away. “They need food aid desperately, these are poor people who cannot store food and will soon be starving,” she said in a phone interview.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa deputy spokesman Yahya Mujahid told the CSMonitor his group welcomed US aid efforts.

“Everyone should be digging in for humanity’s sake, and we shouldn’t be politicizing the matter. We aren’t reaching out with an agenda in mind. The whole world should be putting in aid, America or whoever else, and we want everyone to contribute,” he said in a phone interview from Mianwali in Punjab.

Scorn has been heaped upon President Asif Ali Zardari for not canceling his visit to Europe where he met with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday.
he leaders of Britain and Pakistan on Friday smoothed over a row about tackling terrorism in the South Asian republic as they agreed to step up cooperation in fighting extremism. British Prime Minister David Cameron had suggested last week that elements in Pakistan were backing the “export of terror”, triggering a diplomatic spat.

But he and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari put on a show of unity after their talks outside London, saying the bond between Pakistan and the former colonial power was unbreakable.

Putting the row behind him, Cameron accepted an invitation to visit Islamabad soon and agreed to a yearly summit.

“This is a friendship that will never break, no matter what happens,” Zardari said outside the prime minister's weekend retreat of Chequers, northwest of London.

“Storms will come and storms will go, and Pakistan and Britain will stand together and face all the difficulties with dignity,” he said. Cameron said he wanted to enhance London's partnership with Islamabad “in the absolutely vital area of combating terrorism”.

And he said they had discussed “what we see as an unbreakable relationship between Britain and Pakistan based on our mutual interests”.

“We want to work together to combat terrorism,” he said. “Whether it's keeping troops safe in Afghanistan or to keep people safe on the streets of Britain, that is a real priority for my government.”

In a joint statement, Cameron and Zardari said London and Islamabad would step up their anti-terror co-operation.

“Among the common challenges facing the UK and Pakistan is the fight against terrorism and violent extremism,” they said.

“Both leaders appreciated the close co-operation that already exists between respective police forces and other security agencies. The two leaders agreed that such co-operation needs to and will intensify.”

Cameron accepted an invitation to visit Pakistan soon, while the two countries' foreign ministers will meet in October, and Britain's interior minister will visit Pakistan within months. Relations between the two Commonwealth countries soured after Cameron hit out at Pakistan while on a visit to India last week.

“We cannot tolerate in any sense the idea that this country (Pakistan) is allowed to look both ways and is able, in any way, to promote the export of terror, whether to India or whether to Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world,” he told an audience in Bangalore.

The remark infuriated Islamabad, especially as it was made on a visit to Pakistan's regional rival, and prompted the Pakistani government to summon Britain's representative in Islamabad for clarification. Zardari came under enormous pressure to cancel his trip over the controversy.

His failure to return home immediately in the aftermath of the flood disaster has also drawn criticism in both countries. Cameron and Zardari had an informal dinner at Chequers on Thursday ahead of Friday's talks.
Flooding has also hit Indian-administered Kashmir in the Ladakh region, where at least 60 people have been killed. A similar number of deaths, 63, has been reported in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
At time of disaster when pakistan needs really help on human basis , western attitude weaken the political government , which is trying his best on great lives cost to defeat militants as many political leader murdered in suicide attacks by militants. Many political leader showed concern for this and predicts blood revolution by militants if international community would not take serious rescue action for pakistan in this hard time.