YOU have generously allocated space to the devastating large-scale floods now engulfing Pakistan with 1,600 deaths and 20 million people affected.

Your Comment column, “Responding to disaster” (Echo, Aug 24), eloquently reflected the British public’s usual altruistic response in donating £40m so far.

Against this background I am surprised and saddened by the misleading impression that may have been given by two letters (HAS Aug 21 and 26) that our own financial difficulties should preclude further aid.

Pakistan usually gets bad press in the foreign, usually Western, media. This is neither surprising nor simple to comprehend. What is unfair, if not totally incorrect, is the allegation that Britons are donating large sums to thwart the Taliban winning the hearts and minds of the flood-affected people.

Despite the reputation given by the tiny extreme elements about the country, Pakistan is a moderate, strategically-important ally of the UK and US. This is proven by the rebuffal of the religious parties in the polls.

Radical Islamic groups have failed to gain much foothold in Pakistan.

One couldn’t improve on your Comment column’s advice that “there is a humanitarian responsibility on countries around the world to come to Pakistan’s aid… We appeal to our readers to continue to show the generosity they are known for”.

Dr Abdul Jaleel, Darlington