Category: 1. Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s disaster management chief in Punjab warned on Thursday that the next 24 hours would be “extremely critical” as floods surged down the Chenab River, threatening the southern city of Multan and dozens of nearby villages after weeks of heavy monsoon rains and dam releases from India.

Punjab, home to half of Pakistan’s 240 million people, is the country’s most populous and agriculturally vital province, often described as its breadbasket. Officials say 46 people have been killed, nearly 3.9 million people affected, 1.8 million displaced, and thousands of villages inundated as the Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej rivers have overflowed since late last month. 

Nationwide, more than 883 people have died in floods, rains and landslides since the monsoon season began in late June, according to the National Disaster Management Authority. The disaster has revived memories of the 2022 deluges, when a third of the country was submerged, 30 million people were displaced and losses exceeded $35 billion.

“This is a critical time for the city and district of Multan,” Punjab Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Director General Irfan Ali Kathia told reporters at a press conference. 

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

Multan, with a population of about 2.6 million, is the largest city in southern Punjab and the region’s economic hub, famous for mango exports, textiles and fertile farmland. 

Kathia said while there was “no danger” yet at Head Muhammad Wala, a barrage point on the Chenab upstream of Multan, the Sher Shah Bridge flood gauge near the city had already reached maximum capacity with only “two to three inches of space” left.

If authorities were forced to operate a breaching section to relieve pressure, he warned, “there are about twenty-seven locations that can be affected by it,” including settlements such as Shershah, Akbarpur and Mirzapur, with 35,000 residents at risk.

Kathia said backwater flows on the Ravi River were worsening the crisis, creating stagnant water in Toba Tek Singh and Khanewal districts. 

“At present, under the backwater effect… there are about two hundred and three villages that have been affected,” he said, adding that more than 1.8 million people and 1.3 million animals had already been evacuated with the help of the Pakistan Army and Rescue 1122.

Relief Commissioner Nabeel Javed said separately in a statement that 46 people had died in Punjab in the latest spell of monsoon rains and floods. He said 410 relief camps, 444 medical camps and 395 veterinary camps had been set up across the province to support those displaced.

RIVER FLOWS AND SINDH THREAT

River flows continued to remain dangerously high on Thursday.

The Chenab was at 217,000 cusecs at Marala, 450,000 at Khanki and 507,000 at Qadirabad, while Chiniot bridge had climbed past 509,000 cusecs and was still rising.

On the Ravi, flows stood at 84,000 cusecs at Jassar and nearly 128,000 at Balloki, both rising. The Sutlej carried 335,000 cusecs at Ganda Singh Wala and 139,500 at Sulemanki, with 169,000 steady at Panjnad. (One cusec equals one cubic foot per second of water flow.)

With reservoirs on both sides of the border near full capacity — Tarbela at 100 percent, Mangla at 87 percent, and India’s Bhakra, Pong and Thein all above 90 percent — officials warned of further downstream pressure in the southern province of Sindh. 

Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said his province was preparing for a potential “super flood” as inflows from Punjab converged in the coming days.

“Our preparations are complete, and we pray this time passes without major damage,” Shah told reporters, warning that persuading riverine communities to evacuate remained the greatest challenge.

As the death toll from Sunday’s earthquake in Afghanistan rises, global aid agencies are warning of dwindling funds for food, shelter, and medicines for survivors.

Just a few countries have publicly committed money with many traditional donors yet to come forward with assistance.

In addition, poor infrastructure in the country that is still fragile following decades of war, has also hampered the emergency response.

Taliban officials on Thursday said the death toll was now close to 1,500, but that number is expected to rise as rescue workers battle to pull bodies from destroyed buildings.

About 3,400 people have been injured while close to 7,000 homes were destroyed in the quake and its aftershocks.

The World Health Organization warned that the window for finding survivors is closing fast and that every hour counts to get help to those who need it.

At the same time, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said humanitarian needs are “vast and growing rapidly”.

International funding to Afghanistan has fallen dramatically since the Taliban takeover in 2021, and just 28 per cent of the target for humanitarian aid has been met this year.

The United Nations and aid agencies are calling on donors to step up with the World Food Programme warning it has funding and stocks to support survivors for just four more weeks.

Rescue teams have struggled to reach affected communities in Kunar, the worst-affected province, hampered by rockfalls and landslides.

Some are walking for hours to deliver aid and medicine, often up steep hills. People from surrounding areas have rushed in to help.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chinese Premier Li Qiang reaffirmed on Thursday to work together on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s (CPEC) second phase in a meeting that the former termed “most productive”.

Pakistan and China share a longstanding strategic partnership with ties that span various sectors, including trade, energy, defence, and infrastructure. PM Shehbaz is currently on a six-day visit to China, where he attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit held from August 31-September 1.

“Both sides also agreed to continue working closely on the next phase of upgraded CPEC 2.0, with its five new corridors,” said a statement today by the Press Information Department (PID) following the meeting in Beijing.

The prime minister highlighted the “significant contribution” of the CPEC in Pakistan’s socio-economic development in the past decade. He also stressed the need for early implementation of the Main Line-1 (ML-1) railway project, the Karakoram Highway realignment and operationalisation of the Gwadar Port.

In a post on X, PM Shehbaz termed the meeting “warm and most productive”.

‘I also invited Chinese companies to enhance their investment footprint in Pakistan,“ the premier said, noting the leaders’ agreement on advancing cooperation in information technology, agriculture, minerals, textiles and industry.

PM Shehbaz said: “I thanked the Chinese leadership & the people for their steadfast support to Pakistan’s socio-economic development, particularly through the successful implementation of CPEC, which was now entering its next phase.

“Inspired by President Xi Jinping’s visionary leadership, we remain committed to building a stronger Pakistan-China community with a shared future,” he added.

The PID statement noted the meeting was “warm and friendly”, with both leaders expressing their satisfaction at the positive trajectory of Pak-China relations.

PM Shehbaz expressed his “deepest gratitude to the Chinese leadership and nation for their unflinching support to Pakistan’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and socio-economic development”.

Both leaders also attended the ceremony of sharing of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) and agreements signed related to the “development of CPEC 2.0, science and technology, IT, media, agriculture, etc”.

Recalling the “important consensus” reached between PM Shehbaz and President Xi Jinping in their Tuesday meeting, the statement noted that both premiers reaffirmed their “shared resolve to further strengthen the iron-clad, all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between Pakistan and China”.

“The signing of the Joint Action Plan 2024-2029 was deemed as an important step in this regard.”

The prime minister asserted that the government’s “tireless reform efforts were yielding promising results, made possible through China’s strong support”. In June, China rolled over $3.4 billion in loans to Pakistan to help boost Islamabad’s foreign exchange reserves.

PM Shehbaz also shared Pakistan’s intent to float Panda Bonds, a type of debt security issued by foreign entities denominated in Chinese yuan (RMB), in the Chinese capital market soon.

The prime minister briefed the Chinese premier on the Pakistan-China Business-to-Business Investment Conference held earlier today, where “more than 300 Pakistani and 500 Chinese companies were in attendance”.

He stressed the vast potential for B2B cooperation and investment, identifying agriculture, mines and minerals, textile, industrial sector and IT as priority areas for mutually beneficial economic collaboration.

PM Shehbaz reiterated Pakistan’s support for President Xi’s landmark initiatives to strengthen multilateralism, including the Global Governance Initiative, Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilisation Initiative.

The delegation-level talks were followed by a sumptuous luncheon, hosted by Premier Li in honour of PM Shehbaz and his team, PID added. Both countries would celebrate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of Pak-China diplomatic ties next year, it noted.

The premier’s ongoing visit was expected to mark the formal launch of the second phase of the CPEC-II, which focuses on industrial cooperation.

PM Shehbaz will also meet Chinese Minister for Information Technology and Industry Li Lecheng, the PID said in a separate statement.

He was set to preside over the B2B conference, which was to “review the outcomes of the first edition, chaired by Shehbaz Sharif in Shenzhen in June 2024, and outline future plans”.

On Tuesday, at the sidelines of the SCO summit, PM Shehbaz and President Xi reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening their “iron-clad and all-weather strategic cooperative partnership”.

In his meeting with the prime minister, President Xi pledged support for Pakistan’s home-grown capacity for development, expressing readiness to build CPEC 2.0 and upgrade the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement, and step up cooperation in industries, agriculture, and mining sectors.

PM Shehbaz had stressed the “significance of the CPEC as a flagship project of President Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to help both countries to build an even stronger Pakistan-China community with a shared future”.

During his recent address at Tianjin University, PM Shehbaz reiterated that all endeavours and initiatives of the current government of Pakistan “closely align with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s vision and philosophy”.

The government has sent 1,000 agriculture graduates from Pakistan to China to learn modern techniques, while about 30,000 students from Pakistan have been getting education and training in China, the premier noted.

The Markhor’s global allure

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At least three policemen, including a Station House Officer (SHO), were killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire on a police patrol vehicle in the Banda Daud Shah area of Karak district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), on Thursday.

According to police, SHO Umar Nawaz was on routine patrol with two constables when their mobile came under a sudden ambush. The attackers sprayed the vehicle with bullets, leaving all three officers dead on the spot.

A spokesperson for Karak police confirmed the incident and said the attackers fled the scene immediately after the assault. Security forces later cordoned off the area and carried a search operation.

Read: K-P rocked by string of terror attacks on police

Authorities have not yet released further details on the perpetrators or the progress of the investigation.

Separately, on Tuesday, unidentified gunmen attacked a passenger vehicle in Lower Kurram, killing at least seven people in K-P. According to the police, the attackers opened fire on the passenger vehicle near Ahmad Khan Kalle and fled the scene. Kurram District Police Officer (DPO) Kurram Malik Habib stated that the attack was an attempt to sabotage peace in the area.

These recent ambushes come amid a surge in militant violence against police in K-P. In August alone, over 13 coordinated gun and grenade attacks were launched by terrorists in seven districts, killing at least six policemen. Officials described the Independence Day assaults as a direct challenge to the state’s authority.

Fifteen people were killed and more than 30 others were wounded in a suicide bombing near a political rally in Pakistan, authorities said.

Hundreds of members of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) had gathered for a rally at a stadium in Quetta, the capital of restive Balochistan province, when a bomb exploded in the parking area on Tuesday night.

Provincial authorities said on Wednesday that the death toll had risen to 15. The Islamic State militant group said it carried out the attack.

Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is the country’s largest and poorest region. Its residents also face regular and often deadly attacks from the Islamic State and separatist groups.

The suicide bomber could not reach the rally venue due to tight security, Balochistan health minister Bakht Muhammad Kakar said, according to Pakistani network Geo News.

The damage would have been much greater if the blast had happened at the venue, government official Hamza Shafqaat told reporters. He also said that the government had deployed 120 police personnel to the rally for security, Geo News reported.

The rally on Tuesday night was held in commemoration of Ataullah Mengal, the former chief minister of Balochistan who died in 2021.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack targeting the BNP rally, which he said was “damning evidence of the nefarious conspiracy by terrorists to spread chaos in Balochistan”, local media reported.

A survivor of the blast, Zaman Baloch, said he was standing at some distance from the rally venue when he heard a loud explosion. He suffered shrapnel wounds to his leg.

“After the explosion, I saw a lot of people lying on the ground and there was screaming everywhere,” Baloch said.

Another survivor, Noor Ahmad, also recalled hearing a loud blast.

Injured BNP leader Ahmed Nawaz told BBC Urdu that the explosion took place approximately 200 feet from the rally venue.

Various militant groups operate in Balochistan, posing a constant threat to the security of its residents.

In February 2024, Islamic State claimed it had carried out the bombing of election offices in Balochistan, one day before parliamentary elections were set to be held. The attacks killed more than 20 people and wounded dozens.

Last November, more than 20 people were killed and dozens more injured in a suicide bombing at a railway station in Quetta. The Baloch Liberation Army, a militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack.

And in March this year, armed militants from the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army hijacked a train carrying more than 400 passengers and threatened to kill hostages if authorities did not release Baloch political prisoners.

Additional reporting by BBC Urdu

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore on Thursday granted bail to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan’s nephew and Aleema Khan’s son Shershah in the Jinnah House attack case.

Shershah was taken into custody on August 22, a day after his brother Shahrez’s arrest, and was initially remanded in police custody for five days before being placed on a 14-day judicial remand.

The May 9 riots broke out across the country following the arrest of the PTI founder in a corruption case in 2023. The violence included attacks on military and state installations, with the Jinnah House incident becoming one of the most high-profile cases.

During today’s hearing, the defence lawyer contended that the challan in the case has not been presented and that the suspect cannot be kept in custody indefinitely.

“There is no evidence against the suspect. He is not involved in any riot,” the counsel added.

After hearing arguments, the court approved Shershah’s bail plea.

A day earlier, his brother Shahrez also secured bail in a case relating to the May 9 violence.

Both brothers face charges of allegedly running anti-state campaign and involvement in the riots.

Sources had earlier told told Geo News that both of the suspects were primarily arrested for their alleged involvement in the Jinnah House attack.

“Shershah was present with Hassan Niazi at the time of the Jinnah House attack and had earlier been booked in connection with the case. He was facing accusations of arson, vandalism, and torching a police van, as well as “running an anti-state digital campaign for months”.

He allegedly went into hiding after the violence and later fled to London, where he remained for nearly two years, the sources added.

Black is white means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary: George Orwell. This is how the members of the fascist MQM were trained to say, believe, and know that black is white after its creation at the behest of dictator Zia-ul-Haq, sowing the seeds of ethnic hatred in Sindh to weaken Bhutto’s support base, and handing over Karachi to it. It played havoc with the peace and tranquillity of Karachi in 1988, 1991, 2002 to 2008, indulging in bloodshed, extortion, target killings, arson and torture.

It was this party which paraded the narrative of a second province in Sindh to accommodate the sons of the so-called makers of Pakistan. The party continues singing this hymn uninterrupted. Their forefathers made Pakistan in the lands of Bengalis, Sindhis, Pathans, Baloch and Punjabis instead of UP, CP and Delhi. They are in the minority in Karachi. Katchhi Memons, Baloch, Brohis, Punjabis, Pathans – put together – outnumber them. They have now come down to creating a new province in the ‘abandoned or evacuee Sindh’. Could there be any more absurd argument? Is Sindh – with its history of thousands of years – an abandoned territory? They took all the evacuee properties from 1948-1969.

We cannot figure out a Sindh without Karachi and Hyderabad and half of Mirpurkhas divisions – a torso with its upper part chopped off, a land dispossessed of its historical heritage, of its centuries-old links with the Arabian Sea and Sindh Delta, of its coastal area of 350 kilometres and seaports, of its economic, financial and industrial hub, of its health, educational, literary and intellectual centres. What would remain with the lower Sindh – divisions of Sukkur, Larkana and Nawabshah?

Sindhis would not accept this, nor would they want to relive the bloodshed of past decades. We must keep in mind their successful struggles against the annexation of Sindh to the Bombay Presidency; the federalisation of Karachi; the territorial amalgamation of Sindh in the One-Unit; the restoration of democracy in 1984; the Kalabagh Dam and the recent protests over the construction of unauthorised canals. Sindhis are federal-minded but unwilling to make any compromises about their political and economic autonomy, as well as the territorial integrity of Sindh. The proposition of dividing Sindh would reignite the ethnic tension and bloodshed of the past decades, shaking the federal foundations of the country.

This balkanisation of Balochistan will engender ethnic conflicts of greater enormity, leading to decades of strife, chaos and anarchy

The modern Balochistan or Khanate of Kalat was established in 1666. The Khanate lost considerable territories to invading armies from the west and north. The Indian British forces also compelled the Khanate in 1838-1839 to allow the Empire a corridor from Khangarh (Present Jacobabad) to Quetta with a cantonment to monitor the Great Game. The Khanate accepted this in exchange for regular financial assistance, defence from the west and east, and full internal autonomy. The Khan of Kalat was in favour of Pakistan and extended financial assistance to AIML by weighing the Quaid in gold and silver. A tripartite Standby agreement was signed between the representatives of AIML (Quaid-e-Azam and others), Khanate of Kalat (Prime Minister and the Chief Secretary of Khanate) and British India on 3rd June 1947. It was agreed that Balochistan being out of the Indian possessions of the Empire, would maintain its independence as it stood in 1838 with special relations with Pakistan (Inside Balochistan – Memoirs of Mir Ahmed Yar Khan).

Mir Ahmed Yar Khan, Khan of Kalat, visited Pakistan in October 1947. He was accorded the protocol of a Head of State. The Khan was apprehensive about Pakistan’s direct contacts with the semi-autonomous regions of the Khanate – Las Bella and Kharan – to join it. These differences intensified and resulted in the siege of Kalat in March 1948 and the surrender by the Khan of Kalat in April 1948.

The Khan writes in his memoirs that he overstepped his authority to surrender, in violation of the Resolution passed by the Balochistan Legislative Assembly for Independence. He says he did so to avoid mayhem. This triggered the first insurgency in Balochistan, spearheaded by Prince Abdul Karim. When the province was amalgamated into One-Unit in 1955, the Baloch again took up arms in the second rebellion led by Nawab Nauroz Khan Zehri. The third rebellion in this volatile province was triggered by the dismissal of the elected government of Attaullah Mengal in July 1973. The violent death of Sardar Akbar Khan Bugti sparked the fourth insurgency, which remains aglow to this day. Baloch have never accepted the mistreatment of their land.

The proposition of dividing their land into four provinces on an ethnic basis is tantamount to stirring the hornet’s nest. Would it be advisable to balkanise such a volatile province on ethnic basis – to favour pro-establishment dynasties in Sahili Balochistan (Jams), Shumali Balochistan (Pathans) and East Balochistan (Jamali, Magsi, Rind, Domki tribes) and restrain and restrict the perceived anti-establishment tribes in the Wasti Balochistan (Brohi)? This balkanisation of Balochistan will engender ethnic conflicts of greater enormity, leading to decades of strife, chaos and anarchy.

After the secession of East Pakistan, the centrifugal forces had become too assertive. Therefore, the framers of the 1973 Constitution laid down a tough process for the establishment of new provinces requiring two-thirds majority votes from the Provincial Assemblies and the Parliament. The Constitutional barricade of a two-thirds majority may be surmounted as we witnessed in the case of the 26th Constitutional Amendment.

However, the economic, financial and administrative issues provoked by the creation of new provinces including, as elaborated by Dr Ishrat Hussain, division of assets and liabilities, additional costs on offices, secretariats and Ministers, handling legal disputes, restructuring administration, reassigning civil servants, delimiting constituencies, and redrawing boundaries would be administratively, economically and politically unsustainable for Pakistan with chronically weak federal bonds, broken institutional systems of governance, and a corrupt economy.