asif sherazi from islamic relief, pakistan, thank you very much.hers , are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:30 and 11:30 this evening in the papers. our guestsjoining me tonight are sam lister, who's the political editor at the daily express, and the author and journalist, yasmin alibhai—brown. hundreds of supporters of the powerful iraqi cleric, muqtada al—sadr, have stormed the presidential palace in baghdad after he announced he was withdrawing from politics. medical workers say eight people have been killed and 85 others injured in the violence. a nationwide curfew has been declared. bbc world service's middle east analyst, sebastian usher has the latest on the violence and muqtada al—sadr�*s future. he's played a political game since the election last october, in which his alliance won the most seats, and they will have seen themselves, once again, as being the power that could decide who would be the next prime minister, and that hasn't happened. usually it takes a long time in iraq after an election, but the different factions, despit

i've been speaking to asif sherazi who is pakistan's country director for the aid agency islamic relief explained how difficult it is to reach people needing humanitarian assistance. it is to reach people needing pakistan has received unprecedented rains starting from upcountry, like swat area, and then it ends up to baluchistan, also affecting punjab, khyber pakhtunkhwa, and sindh. in baluchistan, the situation started earlier, where i was in the beginning of august and i was also there since yesterday, and during my whole trip there was a continuous rain and the rain was continuously destroying more and more infrastructure. that included the houses of the people, livelihood assets, as well as the public infrastructure, bridges, roads, so it's a destruction everywhere, and if i compare it with 2010 floods, the situation is worse. 33 million people in total are impacted because of this flood. 4.2 million are directly affected. around 100 districts across pakistan are severely affected by these floods, so it's one of the mega disasters we have seen in our recent history. and the situatio

we can speak to asif sherazi who is pakistan's country director for the aid agency islamic relief worldwideng us. so many facing diabolical situations, how would you describe the situation? thank you very much for your report and the story. you just mentioned one story and there are a million in similar situations. pakistan has received unprecedented rains, started from upcountry and then it ends up in these areas affected. the situation started earlier where i was in the beginning of august and i was in the beginning of august and i was also there since yesterday. during my whole trip there was a continuous rain and the rain was continuously destroying more and more infrastructure. this including the houses of the people, livelihoods, the public infrastructure, bridges, roads. so there is just destruction everywhere. if i compare it to 2010 for loads, the situation is further worse.. 33 million people and impacted. four point 2 million. district across pakistan are severely affected. this is one of the mega disasters we have seen in our recent history. find the mega disasters we have seen i

pakistan country directer for islamic relief asif sherazi told us about current relief efforts in the the people. and then we also started the water trucking to provide the clean drinking water and also providing shelter material, because in district charsadda, you can see thousands of the families on the roadside, either on m1 motorway and also the road that is leading to charsadda from motorway. so it's like a lot of displacement and even the government buildings and other makeshift arrangements are not enough to accommodate this number of the people. and so... some people they have received some... apologies for interrupting. you describe there thousands of people that you were seeing. how many people are you actually able to help when you get to these areas? today, we were able to help around 1,200 people with the food assistance. tomorrow, another 1,200 people and the clean drinking water through water trucking, our three water trucks will be there for providing the water 211/7. and obviously absolutely valuable work that you're doing and giving relief to those people that you ca

joining me now is asif sherazi, country director for islamic relief pakistan.ing. . thank you very much i am in the _ had been expecting. . thank you very much i am in the capital _ had been expecting. . thank you very much i am in the capital of _ much i am in the capital of rajasthan, the worst affected province from these flash floods and we have already given the numbers of over 500 people die and a lot of losses and livestock and agriculture and and they visited the area which is 80 kilometres and and her name her house is unstable. and she mentioned during that we don't remember seeing a downfall in —— downpour in this area and she added that her grandson got trapped under one of the falling walls of the house for 15 minutes and then my son rescued him. there is a broad description that might need years to overcome. staying out without a roof is a challenge for women and children, so that is the situation from one family was just eight kilometres from the capital, quetta, so the situation is not very good and the flash flood has destroyed the sources of l

joining us now pakistan country directer for islamic relief asif sherazi. thank you forjoining us.rom one of the worst affected areas. we were able to distribute some food among the people. and then we also started the people. and then we also started the water trucking to provide the clean drinking water and providing shelter material. because in the district you can see thousands of families on the roadside, either on m1 motorway. and also the road that is leading to the motorway. it is like a lot of displacement and even the government buildings and other makeshift arrangements are not enough to accommodate this number of people. so some people have received some... ~ ., , people. so some people have received some... ., , ., , some... apologies for interrupting, ou some... apologies for interrupting, you describe _ some... apologies for interrupting, you describe thousands _ some... apologies for interrupting, you describe thousands of - some... apologies for interrupting, you describe thousands of people i you describe thousands of people that you were seeing, how many people w