Mr. Chair, the Government of Canada is obviously well aware of the economic and political challenges Pakistan is currently facing. It is not really our place to comment on how the people of Pakistan will respond to the crisis or how they will go forward in deciding their future.
Certainly, a country facing multiple problems at the same time will have a bigger challenge to overcome. To date, however, we have observed that despite all these challenges happening at virtually the same time, the government has continued to function and perform its duties. Of course, it has requested a lot of international aid to deal with the flooding, but I see no causal connection between the floods and the political and economic situations referred to earlier.
We note that this is quite a difficult period, but the government of Pakistan is continuing to engage with the international community and respond effectively to the situation.