Reports suggest Pakistan sent back flood aid it received to Turkey as earthquake relief: is it return gift?
Turkish officials reportedly found that the aid sent by Pakistan to assist with earthquake relief was actually the same aid that Turkey had sent to Pakistan for flood relief the previous year. The boxes had been repackaged by Pakistani authorities, but the contents remained the same.
According to reports, the Pakistani government repackaged aid received from Turkey during the 2022 floods and sent it back as earthquake relief to Turkey. Turkish officials reportedly discovered the message they had written for Pakistani flood victims in the opened relief materials. Pakistani media reports indicate that the Turkish relief materials were originally delivered to Sindh, a heavily impacted region during the floods. It appears that the same materials were repurposed, repackaged, and delivered to Ankara.
A Pakistan-based journalist said that recently Islamabad had sent C-130 planes with relief supplies and rescue personnel to the quake-hit areas of Turkey. The relief materials sent by Pakistan were the ones that Turkey sent to the Sindh province when the region was hit by floods in 2022, journalist Shahid Masood said on the Pakistan-based GNN news channel. The consulate general has reportedly raised the matter in front of Pakistan’s External Affairs Ministry after not being overly impressed.
This has come as a major embarrassment for Pakistan as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was personally monitoring the relief and rescue operations which were to be sent to Turkey.Taking to Twitter, Sharif said Turkey helped them immensely during the earthquake of 2005 and the flood of 2010. “The people of Pakistan cannot forget that Turkey took swift action to help us during the earthquake of 2005 and the flood of 2010. The concept of brotherhood in Islam connects us with a unique bond with which we share each other’s pain,” Sharif wrote on Twitter.
This adds to a recent series of embarrassing moments for the Pakistani government, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s postponed visit to the earthquake-stricken region. Sharif, along with Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, had planned to visit just two days after the earthquake, but was asked by Ankara to delay the visit.
Additionally, there are reports that Pakistan may have denied India permission to use its airspace for relief materials to Turkey. Although many countries have offered assistance to the quake-stricken regions, Pakistan’s actions may not have been well-received by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The earthquake, which was of 7.8 magnitude, hit Turkey and Syria almost two weeks ago, causing widespread damage and aftershocks. The death toll in both countries has exceeded 44,000, and rescue and rehabilitation efforts are ongoing and expected to take several weeks to complete.
People on Twitter have been mocking Pakistan over the faux pas, with many even dubbing it a ‘Soan Papdi moment’. The sweet dish is known to be packaged and repackaged as a gift during Diwali in India.
