The announcement came as floodwaters inundated a large
town in Pakistan and authorities struggled to build new levees with clay and
stone to prevent one of the area's biggest cities from suffering the same fate.
Foreign countries have pledged hundreds of millions of
dollars to help Pakistan cope with the floods, which started a month ago after
extremely heavy monsoon rains.
But some officials had criticized the Muslim world for
not contributing enough.
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, head of the 57-member Organization
of The Islamic Conference, likely sought to counter that criticism by
announcing Sunday that Muslims have pledged nearly $1 billion. The pledges came
from Muslim states, non-governmental organizations, OIC institutions and
telethons held in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar, he said.
"They have shown that they are one of the largest
contributors of assistance both in kind and cash," said Ihsanoglu of the
various donors. He spoke during a joint news conference with Pakistani Foreign
Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Islamabad.
Ihsanoglu did not provide a breakdown of the pledges or
say how much of the money would flow through the Pakistani government versus
independent organizations.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani criticized
donations made to foreign NGOs rather than the Pakistani government, saying
much of the money would be wasted "Eighty percent of the aid will not come
to you directly," said Gilani, referring to Pakistani citizens.
"It will come through their NGOs, and they will eat
half of it," he said during a news conference in his hometown of Multan.
The floods began in the mountainous northwest and have
moved slowly down the country toward the coast in the south, inundating vast
swaths of prime agricultural land and damaging or destroying more than 1
million homes.
Floodwaters surged into the southern town of Sujawal on
Sunday after breaking through a levee on the Indus River two days earlier, said
Hadi Baksh, a disaster management official in southern Sindh province. Most of
the town's 250,000 residents had already fled, but the damage to homes, clinics
and schools added to the widespread devastation across Pakistan.
Authorities in Sujawal were trying to limit the damage,
but the water level has already risen up to 5 feet in the center of town and 10
feet in the surrounding villages, said Anwarul Haq, the top official in
Sujawal.
The floodwaters also threatened Thatta, a historic city
of some 350,000 people who have mostly fled to higher ground.
Thatta is the base of operations for local authorities
trying to cope with a disaster that has overwhelmed the Pakistani government
and international partners who have stepped in to help.
Authorities rushed to build makeshift levees across the road
connecting Sujawal and Thatta, parts of which were already flooded, Baksh said.
"We are trying to plug the bridges at three
different points to stop the water flow toward Thatta," said Baksh.
"We are trying all our best efforts." Thatta is
located about 125 km southeast of the major coastal city of Karachi and 15
miles northwest of Sujawal.
Many of the people who fled Sujawal and Thatta headed to
Makli, a hill just south of Thatta that contains a vast Muslim graveyard.
About half a million flood victims are camped out on the
hill, Baksh said. Most lack any form of shelter and are desperate for food and
water.
"We don't have water to drink, not to mention food,
tents or any other facility," said Mohammed Usman, a laborer who fled
Sujawal several days ago and needed water to help cope with a painful kidney
stone.
The United Nations, the Pakistani army and a host of
local and international relief groups have rushed aid workers, medicine, food
and water to the affected regions, but are unable to reach many of the 8
million people who are in need of emergency assistance.
The US said Saturday it would deploy an additional 18
helicopters to help with the relief effort. The US military is already
operating 15 helicopters and three C-130 aircraft in the country, the US
Embassy said in a statement.
Secretary-General 
of  the Organization  of  Islamic Conference, Dr. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said Pakistan
needed urgent assistance to  cope
with unprecedented devastation. He 
was  talking  to  Gilani in Islamabad on Monday.
The Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic
Conference (OIC), Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu called upon the Islamic Development Bank
(IDB,) in consultation with the government of Pakistan, to work out long-term
programs for the reconstruction and rehabilitation needs of the flood affected
areas in Pakistan.
And during an urgent meeting in Jeddah, members of the
IDB Board of Executive Directors approved the mechanism for providing
assistance to Pakistan and decided to focus on scaling up the bank's strategic
engagement in response to the unfolding disaster.
Meanwhile, American geological experts have predicted
more floods in Pakistan as a result of climate change.