Category: 1. Pakistan

Published on: September 5, 2025 2:11 AM

Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari has said that the Punjab Government has fixed new prices of flour and bread, and no increase will be tolerated. According to Information Minister Azma Bokhari, the price of a 10 kg flour bag has been fixed at Rs. 905 and the price of a 20 kg flour bag at Rs. 1810, while the price of roti has been fixed at Rs. 14.

Azma Bokhari made it clear that no one will be allowed to raise the prices of essential commodities under the pretext of floods. The government is taking full measures to provide relief to the people and to keep the prices of daily-use items under control. She said that in this regard, the Punjab Government has issued an official notification, while the notifications regarding the prices of flour and roti have also been shared with the public and the media.

Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) has announced a significant oil and gas discovery at its Dhok Sultan-03 well, located in District Attock, Punjab, marking a major milestone in the country’s upstream energy sector.

According to a press release issued by the company, the well flowed 1,469 barrels per day (BPD) of oil and 2.56 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscfd) of gas at a wellhead flowing pressure (WHFP) of 1,147 psig on a 32/64″ choke. On a 48/64″ choke, the well produced 2,113 BPD of oil and 4.13 MMscfd of gas at 813 psig WHFP.

PPL termed the results “highly encouraging,” describing the find as the second deepest oil discovery in naturally fractured carbonate formations in the Potwar region. The Dhok Sultan-03 well is part of the Dhok Sultan Block, where PPL operates with a 75% working interest, alongside Government Holdings Private Limited (GHPL), which holds the remaining 25%.

The Dhok Sultan-03 well was spudded on January 18, 2025, and drilled to a total depth of 5,815 meters to test the hydrocarbon potential of the Patala and Lockhart formations.

“Testing results were highly encouraging, the well flowed 1,469 barrels per day of oil and 2.56 MMscfd of gas at Wellhead Flowing Pressure (WHFP) of 1,147 psig on a 32/64” choke, and 2,113 barrels per day of oil and 4.13 MMscfd of gas at WHFP of 813 psig on a 48/64” choke,” stated the PPL release.

PPL credited the breakthrough to “rigorous geological, geophysical and reservoir engineering data analyses” that enabled the company to overcome challenging drilling conditions by optimizing well design—resulting in reduced drilling time and cost savings.

The company stated that the Dhok Sultan-03 find is expected to make a meaningful contribution to Pakistan’s energy mix by adding domestic reserves and reducing the need for energy imports. The discovery is the second successful find in the Dhok Sultan Block.

“PPL remains committed to responsibly exploring and developing Pakistan’s natural resources, ensuring long-term value creation for the country and its people,” the statement concluded.

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake has shaken Afghanistan as the death toll from the devastating quake on Sunday rose to more than 2,200.

It struck south-eastern regions on Thursday night, according to the Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Germany. It was not immediately clear how much damage there was.

A 5.5 magnitude aftershock struck on Tuesday, causing panic and interrupting rescue efforts as more roads were cut off by rockfall.

Hamdullah Fitrat, a Taliban spokesperson, confirmed on Thursday that the death toll from Sunday’s magnitude 6.0 earthquake had risen to 2,205 – up from previous estimates of 1,400 and making it one of the deadliest natural disasters to hit the country in decades.

It hit the mountainous and remote eastern part of the country around midnight on Sunday, levelling entire villages where people were trapped under rubble.

Most of the casualties were in Kunar province, where many houses are built from wood and mud bricks, making them highly vulnerable to earth tremors.

Rescuers have managed to reach villages that had been completely cut off by the disaster and bodies continued to be pulled from debris on Thursday.

About 98% of the buildings in Kunar were damaged or destroyed, according to an assessment from the charity, Islamic Relief.

The rough and mountainous terrain has been hindering relief efforts. Taliban authorities have deployed helicopters and airdropped army commandos to help locate and rescue survivors. Aid workers reported walking for hours to reach villages cut off by landslides and rockfall.

Resident Muhammad Israel said the quake unleashed a landslide that buried his home, livestock and belongings in Kunar.

“All the rocks came down from the mountain,” he said. “I barely got my children out of there. The earthquake jolts are still happening. It is impossible to live there.”

He was staying at a UN medical camp in Nurgal, one of the worst-affected areas. “The situation is also bad for us here, we don’t have shelter and are living under open skies,” he added.

Rescue and relief efforts have been hampered by a lack of international aid funding and resources flowing into the country. Since the Taliban seized back power in 2021 and began imposing hardline religious laws, making it difficult for NGOs and aid groups to function, there has been a steep drop in support.

Aid agencies said they were urgently in need of staff and supplies to tend to the injured and to house tens of thousands who have been left homeless and without access to food or water. About 84,000 people have been affected so far.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said it had fewer than 450 staff in Afghanistan, whereas it had 1,100 in 2023 when the last major quake struck the country. The council has only one warehouse and no emergency stock.

“We will need to purchase items once we get the funding but this will take potentially weeks and people are in need now,” said Maisam Shafiey, a communications and advocacy adviser for the council in Afghanistan.

“We have only $100,000 [£75,000] available to support emergency response efforts. This leaves an immediate funding gap of $1.9m.”

Shamshair Khan, a doctor tending to the injured at the UN camp in Nurgal, said supplies were already running out.

“Neither these medicines are enough nor these services,” he said. “These people need more medicine and tents. They need food and clean drinking water. They need more aid. These people are in great pain.”

The earthquakes came with Afghanistan already suffering from drought and a severe economic crisis. The withdrawal of USAid funding, after cuts by the Trump administration earlier this year, resulted in the closure of many hospitals and medical clinics.

The pressures on the country have been exacerbated by the forced return of more than 2 million Afghans from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran, many of whom have nowhere to live or work.

Tremors felt in India and Pakistan

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When churning floodwaters swept away a group of tourists in Pakistan’s Swat Valley in June, the whole country felt a sense of déjà vu.

Just three years ago, extensive floods had swallowed entire hotels and families vacationing in the “Switzerland of Pakistan,” leaving more than 1,700 dead and causing billions in damage. Today, extreme rainfall has once again inundated swathes of the country, underscoring Pakistan’s status as one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations.

The monsoon, which began earlier than usual on June 26, has so far killed nearly 900 people and injured more than 1,180 across Pakistan, NDMA data shows. Almost half of the deaths came in three weeks as torrential rains and flash floods killed more than 400 people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Thousands of houses in Swat were damaged, with losses running into billions of rupees.

Punjab, the country’s most populous province and agricultural hub, is among the worst hit. Officials say 46 people have been killed, nearly 3.9 million affected, 1.8 million displaced, and thousands of villages inundated as the Chenab, Ravi, and Sutlej rivers overflowed since late July.

“This is a critical time for the city and district of Multan,” Punjab Disaster Management Authority Director General Irfan Ali Kathia told reporters. Nationwide, the NDMA says more than 883 people have died in floods, rains, and landslides this season, reviving memories of the 2022 deluge that submerged a third of the country, displaced 30 million, and inflicted losses exceeding $35 billion.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), flood-hit communities urgently need shelter, medical assistance, clean water, hygiene kits, cash-for-work support, and protection services, particularly for women and girls.

“The authorities are leading the response with the support of the United Nations and local partners,” a spokesperson said.

Yet the recurring tragedies highlight Pakistan’s woeful disaster preparedness, as lofty climate funding pledges from advanced, higher-emitting countries and multilateral donors fail to materialize, Bloomberg reported.

The shortfall reflects the grim irony facing less-developed economies that contribute little to climate change but bear its heaviest impacts.

Less than half of the roughly $11 billion pledged by the European Union, China, the Asian Development Bank, and others after the 2022 floods has reached Pakistan, according to OCHA, citing government data. Projects have been identified for about three-quarters of the pledges, the Ministry of Economic Affairs says.

At the same time, new pledges continue even as older commitments remain partly unmet. The European Union last week committed $1.1 million in emergency aid for flood-hit areas, while the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations announced fresh support worth $3 million and $600,000, respectively.

Pakistan — already grappling with economic and political crises — estimates it needs $348 billion in investment through 2030, including $16 billion just to recover from the 2022 disaster, according to World Bank calculations.

“The number one problem for Pakistan’s ability to do what it needs to do is the lack of financing,” said Mohamed Yahya, the UN’s Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan.

Of the pledges made, about $4.5 billion has been disbursed as of June, mostly for rebuilding housing, transport, drainage, and flood risk management. The ADB says it has provided $528 million, including for a reconstruction project in Sindh, while the World Bank has channeled about $1 billion into new reconstruction and adaptation efforts in Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan. It has also approved another $600 million on top of its original pledge.

Still, officials say the gap is vast. Globally, the UN estimates the funding shortfall for climate adaptation at $187 billion a year, worsened by donor fatigue and fiscal pressures in advanced economies.

Many EU countries want China to share more of the burden, while a pullback from climate commitments in some Western nations — including the US’ earlier withdrawal from the Paris Agreement — has further weakened flows.

Financing also tends to come as loans or diverted funds, making it less attractive to countries already mired in debt. Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb admitted in August that the country had failed to develop enough “investable” projects to absorb pledged flood-related financing, according to local news reports.

Domestic challenges compound the problem. Political upheaval, corruption, and poor resource management have left Pakistan with little fiscal space to shoulder the costs of climate adaptation.

“The government has to ensure that they do their homework in terms of the needs of communities across Pakistan and then develop plans accordingly,” Imran Khalid, an environmental scientist in Islamabad, told Bloomberg. Stronger urban planning and better systems to manage large-scale financing are urgently required, he added.

Pakistan’s national adaptation plan calls for investments in early warning systems, wetlands to capture runoff, and infrastructure resilient to the drought–flood cycles that batter its farmland. Climate Change Minister Musadik Malik told parliament in July that the government is developing a strategy to disburse and track climate-related flows.

Some progress is being made. In July, Pakistan launched a remote sensing satellite with China for round-the-clock disaster assessment. It is also working with the UN to train officials and expand early warning systems in the vulnerable valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The urgency is clear. Rainfall this season has been 82% higher than last year, the weather agency says. Nearly 900 people have died, thousands have been displaced, and acres of crops destroyed. With more than 7,200 glaciers — the world’s largest outside the poles — Pakistan faces floods as its most frequent natural disaster.

“If devastating events continue to happen along the way, they can add to the economic burden,” said Zeeshan Salahuddin, a partner at Tabadlab, a think tank in Islamabad. “And this is why Pakistan really needs to focus more on finding innovative finance solutions.”

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday vowed maximum facilitation of Chinese investors by removing all bureaucratic hurdles as Pakistan and China inked 21 memoranda of understandings (MoUs) worth $4.2 billion in diverse fields.

The prime minister unveiled a bold new vision for Pakistan-China economic cooperation, announcing the formal launch of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor “CPEC 2.0” during his keynote address at the Second Pakistan-China B2B Investment Conference held in Beijing.

Welcoming the high-level delegates, he described the forum as a reflection of the iron-clad brotherhood between Pakistan and China.

Addressing concerns about bureaucratic delays, the premier issued a clear and direct message: “We will not tolerate a second’s delay. I recently ensured that a Chinese entrepreneur was facilitated within 24 hours. That’s the level of commitment I am talking about.”

He reassured the Chinese delegation of Pakistan’s unwavering commitment to investor facilitation, stating that Chinese investors will be treated as partners and that “Pakistan is your second home, just as China is ours.”

Security of Chinese nationals in Pakistan, he said is a top priority, adding: “The safety of Chinese citizens is paramount.

“This is one of the largest business conferences I have attended during my visit to this great country.

Our relationship with China is unmatched, higher than the Himalayas, deeper than the deepest oceans, sweeter than honey and stronger than steel,” said the prime minister.

Referring to the CPEC agreement signed in 2015 during President Xi Jinping’s historic visit to Pakistan, PM Shehbaz credited the first phase of CPEC with transforming Pakistan’s energy and infrastructure landscape.

“We were facing up to 20 hours of power outages daily. Today, thanks to President Xi’s dynamic and visionary leadership, Pakistan became energy self-sufficient. That was the turning point,” he noted.

The premier announced the launch of CPEC 2.0, which will shift focus toward business-to-business (B2B) investments in agriculture, IT and AI, minerals, and industrial relocation.

“Our agriculture sector employs 60% of our population. China has excelled in this field, and we seek your partnership to modernize our agricultural practices and increase exports,” he urged Chinese investors.

He emphasised the role of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in attracting investment, offering competitive advantages such as cheaper skilled labour and joint ventures to produce high-quality export goods.

In an emotionally charged segment of his speech, PM Shehbaz recounted his first visit to China in 1982. “Even back then, I said China is suffering from success, not failure. Today, China is the second-largest economy and a global military power, having lifted over 700 million people out of poverty.

“This is the model I want to borrow and replicate in Pakistan,” he said.

He commended President Xi’s leadership in promoting multilateralism and shared prosperity, saying that China has changed the destinies of many nations, a testament to its “visionary and dynamic leadership”.

In his closing remarks, he reiterated his determination to transform Pakistan’s economic landscape.

“We know the path is difficult, but not impossible. With China’s support and our commitment, we will make Pakistan a strong and vibrant economy. Let today mark the beginning of that journey.”

Chinese and Pakistani investors, government officials, and dignitaries, including Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, the Ambassador of Pakistan to China Khalil Hashmi, and Chairman of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, federal ministers and others were present on the occasion.

Strong tremors from a 5.9-magnitude earthquake were felt across parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Azad Kashmir, and the federal capital region on Thursday.

According to the Seismic Monitoring Center of the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), the quake’s epicentre was located in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush region at a depth of 111 kilometres.

Tremors were reported in Peshawar, Lower Dir, Upper Dir, Malakand, Bajaur, Mohmand, Shabqadar, Charsadda and Parachinar, as well as Nowshera, Hangu and Kohat. Shocks were also felt in Mansehra, Abbottabad, Swat and Attock.

In Punjab, jolts were experienced in Mianwali, Chakwal, Talagang, Kallar Kahar and adjoining areas, while Multan also reported tremors. In Islamabad and Rawalpindi, strong shocks prompted residents to rush outdoors.

In Azad Jammu and Kashmir, people in Neelum Valley and Dhirkot felt tremors.

No immediate reports of casualties or damage have been received.

Several quakes have hit the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, which lies at the intersection of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.

In neighbouring Afghanistan, the death toll from a powerful earthquake that struck the country’s eastern part at the weekend rose sharply to more than 2,200, according to a new toll, making it the deadliest in decades to hit the country.

The vast majority of those killed in the magnitude-6.0 earthquake that jolted the mountainous region bordering Pakistan late on Sunday were in Kunar province, where 2,205 people died and 3,640 were injured, according to a Taliban government toll.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s disaster agency on Thursday issued a high alert for Sindh as heavy monsoon rains and swollen rivers threatened to inundate large parts of the southern province, even as Punjab, the country’s most populous region, remained under severe pressure from surging Chenab River flows.

Nationwide, more than 883 people have died in rains, floods and landslides since the monsoon season began on June 26, according to the NDMA, reviving memories of Pakistan’s catastrophic 2022 deluges when a third of the country was submerged, 30 million displaced and economic losses exceeded $35 billion.

On Thursday evening, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said Sindh’s southern districts including Thatta, Sujawal, Badin, Tharparkar, Umerkot, Sanghar, Karachi, Hyderabad and Jamshoro could see heavy downpours in the coming days, while the northern districts of Sukkur, Ghotki, Larkana, Khairpur, Dadu and Jacobabad were also at risk.

With flood peaks still moving downstream from Punjab, the alert warned of “high to very high” flooding along the eastern rivers, urging residents of riverine areas to evacuate without delay.

“Your lives are precious, and no unnecessary risk should be taken in the face of natural calamities,” First Lady Bibi Aseefa Bhutto Zardari told communities during a preparedness visit to embankments near Nawabshah.

She inspected protective structures and relief camps, praising local authorities for round-the-clock monitoring and rescue readiness.

“Effective coordination between departments, close monitoring, and advanced planning are essential if we are to manage this challenge successfully,” Bhutto Zardari added.

PUNJAB CRISIS

In Punjab, home to half of Pakistan’s 240 million people and often described as the country’s breadbasket, officials said nearly 3.9 million people had been affected, 1.8 million displaced, and 46 killed in floods since late August. Thousands of villages have been submerged.

Punjab Disaster Management Authority chief Irfan Ali Kathia said the next 24 hours were “extremely critical” for Multan, a city of 2.6 million and the main economic hub of southern Punjab. Multan.

“The main surge of the Chenab has already reached Head Muhammad Wala at its peak and is now moving downstream,” he told reporters.

Kathia added that the Sher Shah Bridge flood gauge near Multan had reached 393.4 feet, against a danger mark of 393.5 feet, leaving only a few inches of space.

If authorities were forced to open a breaching section to relieve pressure, he said, 27 settlements including Shershah, Akbarpur and Mirzapur, home to around 35,000 people, could be inundated.

RIVER FLOWS

Fresh PDMA data from Thursday morning showed the Chenab easing at some upstream points but worsening downstream. Flows at Marala dropped sharply to around 117,000 cusecs from 192,000 recorded the previous evening, and at Khanki fell from 253,600 to 248,800 cusecs. Qadirabad also declined, from 489,000 to 385,000 cusecs.

But the danger has shifted further downstream: at Chiniot bridge levels climbed to nearly 555,000 cusecs, up from 540,000 only hours earlier, while gauges at Riwaz Bridge and Head Muhammad Wala edged higher and Sher Shah Bridge held just inches below its maximum capacity.

On the Ravi, flows steadied or fell slightly at most points, with Jassar down to 80,000 cusecs from 84,000, though Balloki remained elevated at nearly 139,000. On the Sutlej, Ganda Singh Wala dipped modestly to 319,000 cusecs from 327,000, while Panjnad surged to 224,000 from 200,500, suggesting pressure building in the south.

NORTHERN AREAS

Separately, the NDMA warned of landslides in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir from Sept. 4–8, citing high risk in Muzaffarabad, Neelum Valley, Haveli, Bagh, Poonch and Sudhnuti.

Heavy rains could block the Karakoram Highway and other routes in Torghar, Batagram, Shangla, Lower Kohistan, Gilgit, Hunza, Rondhu, Skardu and Chitral.

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