Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has said that in the wake of devastating flood in the country, the foremost priority of his government is to provide shelter and housing to the dislocated people and then to reconstruct the damaged schools, hospitals, farm to market roads and temporary arrangements to restore the damaged bridges and Railway tracks in the country. He stated that while a huge investment would be required for their permanent reconstruction, the international community particularly close friends of Pakistan like UAE will have to come forward to take part in the rehabilitation and reconstruction phases. He was talking to Mr Ahmad Hameed Al-Mazrouie, Chairman of the Board of Directors of UAE Red Crescent Society accompanied by Mr Mohammad Khalifa Al-Qamzi, Secretary General, UAE Red Crescent, Dr Hamdan Musalam Al-Mazrouie, Member of the Board and Mr Ali Al-Shamsi, UAE Special Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as Mr Ali Saif Al-Awani, UAE Ambassador to Pakistan here in the PM's House this morning. The Prime Minister apprised the UAE Red Crescent Society delegation of the massive destruction caused by the floods and the measures undertaken by his government by way of rescue and relief efforts and for helping the displaced persons to reconstruct their houses. The Prime Minister underlined that in doing so, the Federal Government had ensured the consensus amongst all the federating units to distribute the first tranche of Rs 20,000/- per family in a transparent and judicious way to the flood affectees for starting work to rebuild their homes. The Prime Minister added that the second tranche of Rs 80,000/- will be disbursed in the near future. He said that he would soon be calling the meeting of the Council of Common Interests in this regard. He reaffirmed that his government was committed to ensure the transparency in spending the assistance received from abroad and besides the setting up of National Oversight Disaster Management Council comprising experienced civil servants and former members of judiciary of high repute who would be working voluntarily to monitor the process, a web site has been established showing the donations received and their utilization for any one to see. The Prime Minister hoped that international community will focus on the immediate need of provision of winter tents to the flood affectees as the winter season was due to set in within next couple of weeks and in this regard they should try to procure the tents locally as that would be the most economical arrangement. He asked the UAE delegation to convey his gratitude to the President, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of UAE for their generous help extended by the Government of UAE and convey his regards and greetings to them. The head of the UAE delegation conveyed sympathies on behalf of Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, President of UAE and assured support and assistance in this hour of need. Pakistan and UAE relations, he said, are historic and time tested and UAE wants to be on the frontline to help Pakistan in the rehabilitation and reconstruction phases in the flood affected areas. He mentioned that the purpose of the visit of the delegation is to have first hand knowledge of the disaster and listen to the people dealing with the catastrophe. He further said that he has already visited different flood affected areas to supervise the assistance already undertaken by the UAE Red Crescent. He desired that the plans for rehabilitation and reconstruction when finalized after the Damage Need Assessment be shared with UAE so as to see how the UAE Red Crescent could contribute in this regard.