Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) President Alvaro Lario on Tuesday signed a “Host Country Agreement” between Pakistan and IFAD. Under the agreement, the country office of IFAD will be set up in Islamabad. “The agreement will formalize the already existing substantial cooperation between Pakistan and IFAD. IFAD’s current portfolio across Pakistan totals US$ 673 million, which is the second highest IFAD undertaking in the world,” Foreign Office Spokesperson said in a press release. There are five ongoing IFAD projects in Pakistan in Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and South Punjab, with a sixth project forthcoming in Sindh. IFAD projects are related to the areas of nutrition, women empowerment, climate change and youth engagement. IFAD is an important partner for Pakistan in its efforts towards ensuring national food security, climate resilience and rural poverty reduction, it was further added. Meanwhile, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari expressed grief over loss of life and to property due to excessive rains and floods across the country. Bilawal Bhutto, who is also Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, in a statement, directed his party’s ministers and elected representatives, including mayors, deputy mayors, chairmen, deputy chairmen and councillors of local bodies to play their role in helping victims with the coordination of party officials and workers. The poor people, who were already facing economic difficulty due to high inflation, were further troubled by the heavy rains and floods, he added. The PPP chairman expressed concern over the damage caused to agriculture in Sindh due to the rainfall and urged the Federal Government to help the governments of Balochistan, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and Sindh in dealing with the floods. He said like the last year, this year too there was fear of loss to the crops by the excessive rainfall.