Category: 1. Pakistan

Bahawalnagar [Pakistan], September 2 (ANI): A high flood in the Sutlej River has wreaked havoc in Pakistan’s Bahawalnagar district, inundating hundreds of villages and displacing thousands of residents, as per ARY News.
According to details, Chishtian city is facing severe flooding as the Sutlej has swollen to dangerous levels. The strong river currents have triggered rapid erosion, while protective embankments at Motianwala Pattan and Moza Azeem have collapsed.
The breach of the embankments submerged more than 100 villages and destroyed hundreds of houses.
Nearly 10,000 acres of standing crops have been washed away, while key connecting roads between settlements have been swept under water, cutting off access to many localities, as per ARY News.
Thousands of residents have been displaced, appealing for urgent relief.

A rescue operation led by the DSP is underway, and officials report that over 80 per cent of the affected population and livestock have been shifted to safer locations.
In Bahawalnagar, water levels continue to rise under Baba Farid Bridge and Bhookan Pattan Bridge. Floodwaters have breached embankments at Chaweka and Bahadurka, inundating several settlements, including Chak Chaweka and Chak Bahadurka, leaving large tracts of crops destroyed.
The Chaweka Sutlej Road has been washed away, severing ground links to surrounding areas, as evacuations continue, as per ARY News.
Authorities confirmed that more than 150,000 cusecs of water is currently flowing in from Head Sulemanki, intensifying the flood situation.
On August 31, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Punjab issued an ‘exceptionally high flood’ warning in the Chenab River for the next 36 hours, ARY News reported.
PDMA Director General Irfan Ali Kathia highlighted that a massive flood wave is likely to reach Head Marala within the next two days, raising water levels in the Chenab River to dangerously high levels.
The ‘exceptionally high flood’ warning is followed by heavy monsoon rainfall, and the water that has been released from Indian dams, including Thein and Salal, as per ARY News. (ANI)

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has said that issues between former prime minister Imran Khan and the establishment can only be resolved by Khan himself.

Speaking to the media in Peshawar, Gandapur said he held no authority in this regard and identified two key hurdles to Khan’s release. “The first is the absence of rule of law. If the law functions, Khan can be released immediately,” he remarked.

He added that the second obstacle is the ongoing standoff with the establishment. “This matter can only be resolved by Khan himself; I have no authority in this matter,” he clarified.

The chief minister reiterated that Imran Khan was “fighting the nation’s battle” and that the PTI stood firmly with its ideology. He vowed the party would continue its struggle until its objectives were achieved.

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BBC Afghan Service/Abbas Farzami

The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunications, chaired by Senator Palwasha Khan, held a heated session on the future of Pakistan’s telecom sector, raising questions over the long-delayed 5G spectrum auction, unresolved legal disputes, PTCL’s pending $800 million payment to the government, and the potential exit of Telenor from Pakistan.

Officials from the Ministry of IT briefed the committee on preparations for the 5G auction, revealing that Pakistan currently has 600 MHz spectrum available, the same as Bangladesh, while Saudi Arabia has already advanced to 1,200 MHz. “If we want to increase revenue, we need to expand spectrum availability,” officials said. They warned that while the world is moving toward 6G, Pakistan risks falling decades behind.

Senator Humayun Mohmand urged the ministry to push courts for an early resolution of spectrum-related cases that have stalled progress. PTA officials confirmed that a consultant had been hired six months ago, but the consultant advised that Sun TV spectrum disputes be resolved before moving forward with the auction.

Senator Anusha Rahman recommended including NAB and AGPR representatives in the Auction Advisory Committee to ensure transparency. “If NAB is not part of the process, tomorrow there will be audit objections and corruption cases,” she said. PTA officials confirmed that NAB’s inclusion in the supervisory committee had already been proposed.

The committee also took up the issue of the long-pending Telenor-Ufone merger, with members warning that Telenor’s exit from Pakistan could trigger serious quality-of-service issues. Senator Rahman blamed PTA’s policies for Telenor’s decision to leave and urged the government to engage the company directly to prevent its exit.

Sharp criticism was directed at PTCL for failing to clear $800 million owed to the government and for not conducting audits through the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) despite Supreme Court rulings. Audit officials insisted that PTCL, where the government holds majority shares, is legally bound to AGP audits. Ministry of IT officials claimed PTCL’s current management has little interest in resolving the dispute.

For a 10-year-old, the loss is proving hard to grasp. “It has been four days since I last saw my home,” says Ahsan. He has not yet understood that the floods completely swept away his house in Dogoro Basha village in Shigar, Pakistan.

His confusion is part of the devastating aftermath of long months of rain and floods that have devastated thousands of families in the country’s northern provinces and left more than 860 people dead so far.

For Muhammad Shareef, 19, a university student living away from home in Islamabad, the distance does not help. His home in Dogoro Basha was also destroyed, and his family is now displaced. “My house and land are gone. My mother is now living in a tent. The only thing I have left standing is my father’s grave [marker],” he says.

Since the end of June, and throughout July and August, torrential rains and flash floods have battered Pakistan, mostly the regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan. According to the country’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), more than 800 people have died and more than 1,100 have been injured.

More than half of the deaths happened when people were caught by flash floods, with others crushed by collapsing houses.

“This is not only a physical disaster but a mental health crisis,” says Shan-e-Zainab, a Karachi-based clinical psychologist and mental health trainer. “After a flood, people frequently suffer acute stress reactions, helplessness, shock and terror.

“Many develop survivor’s guilt, sleep problems, intrusive memories or overwhelming sadness after losing homes, jobs or loved ones,” she says. “Without proper support, these reactions often deepen into depression, prolonged grief or post-traumatic stress disorder.”

The destruction has been immense. The NDMA reports that across the country more than 9,000 houses have been damaged and more than 2,000 completely destroyed. Displacement is widespread: at least 25,927 people are living in 308 relief camps across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 3,140 people are sheltering in 11 camps in Gilgit-Baltistan.

“Many people died because of the thunderstorm,” says Sher Nawab, 38, a farmer from Buner in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “Those who were outside tried to save their lives, but the people inside their houses could not survive.”

For him, survival is now shadowed by a sense of dread. “We lost our corn crops and livestock,” he says. “But what haunts us is the fear, God forbid, if it rains again.

“Our high school is two hours away; one of the students was swept away by the flood on his way there. The schools are closed now; children are sitting idle at home, and some have lost their books in the water,” Nawab says.

Sajjad Ali Khan, a village elder in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Kunduz valley, describes a similar reality. “In my village, there were about 150 houses. More than half have been affected by the floods,” he says. “People are not able to live in the village. They have left and gone to tents.”

Life in displacement, he adds, is marked by uncertainty. “The children’s school has also been destroyed. The only dispensary in our area was swept away. Our children’s future is at stake.”

In videos shown to the Guardian by a villager from Gilgit-Baltistan, boys explain how the floods have disrupted their lives. “Our schools are closed; we can’t go to class any more,” says one. Another says: “We don’t have clean drinking water.” A third adds simply: “We are living in tents now.”

Emergency officials witness this misery first-hand. “Fear and panic are always the first reaction,” says Muhammad Sohail, a media coordinator for Rescue 1122, a government disaster emergency service in Buner.

“Many victims are in shock, unable to comprehend what has happened. Those who have lost family members go through intense grief; others show helplessness, especially when they have lost their homes or means of livelihood,” he says.

He adds that rescue workers also carry invisible scars. “Rescuers are human. We see death, destruction and grieving families constantly. The emotional burden of not being able to save everyone is very heavy.”

For climate experts, the floods are not anomalies but warnings. “This is not just climate change, it is a climate emergency,” says Yasir Darya, founder of the Climate Action Centre in Karachi.

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“Because of global warming, the weather patterns have shifted. The Earth’s systems are permanently damaged,” Darya says.

He points to the catastrophic floods in 2022, which killed at least 1,700 people, as a turning point. According to the World Bank’s post-disaster assessment, they displaced more than 8 million people and led to economic losses of $30bn (£26bn), making it the most devastating disaster in Pakistan’s recorded history.

“Families lost their homes, land, livestock and everything they had worked for,” says Darya. “In many valleys, people were cut off for weeks, like islands in a vast lake, with no food or medicine reaching them. That is collective psychological torture.”

Zainab says trauma manifests itself differently in different age groups. “Adults often show increased anxiety, anger, insomnia and withdrawal, while children may struggle in school, have recurring nightmares, or revert to earlier behaviours such as bed-wetting or clinginess.”

Where mental health support is lacking, she says, trauma becomes chronic. “It can lead to substance abuse, long-term anxiety or depression in adults, and serious emotional regulation problems in children. Trauma can even be passed from generation to generation.”

Repeated exposure to disasters magnifies the impact. “The disturbance of safety and healing brings an ongoing sense of powerlessness and hypervigilance,” Zainab says. “The risk of developing PTSD, depression and learned helplessness, where people feel unable to cope with ongoing crises, rises with every new flood.

“The most important is psychological first aid, ensuring safety, meeting basic needs, offering emotional support without pressuring survivors to relive details, providing clear information, and helping people reconnect with family and community,” she says. “Early interventions like these significantly reduce the likelihood of chronic psychiatric problems.”

Fewer than 500 psychiatrists serve 240 million people in Pakistan, however, and most of them are based in the major cities.

“Our mental health system lacks the tools to address climate-linked trauma,” says Zainab. “There are too few professionals, not enough community-based services, and stigma remains strong.

“What we need are disaster-response policies that integrate mental health, training for volunteers and health workers in psychological support, mobile mental health services in vulnerable areas, and nationwide awareness campaigns to fight stigma.”

In the northern provinces, survivors are all too aware that the floods will return and things may never go back to normal. “We can rebuild homes,” says Nawab, “but fear stays in the heart.”

For Shareef, in Islamabad, worry is now a constant companion when he travels to his village. “We might survive the day,” he says, “During the day, I might feel safe. But at night, I am worried. I’m not sure what to do.”

Pakistan and China on Tuesday reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening their “iron-clad and all-weather strategic cooperative partnership” through enhanced cooperation, reflecting their unique bilateral relationship.

Pakistan and China share a longstanding strategic partnership with ties ranging across different sectors — including trade, energy, defence, and infrastructure.

The bilateral ties and cooperation were discussed in a meeting between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of State (CHS) summit, held from August 31 to September 1.

“During the meeting, the two leaders agreed that the relationship between their countries was unique and unparalleled, which should be reflected in their enhanced bilateral cooperation,” the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said.

“Both leaders also discussed important regional and global developments and agreed to continue close cooperation between Pakistan and China in this regard.”

PM Shehbaz reaffirmed the desire to continue working closely with China for the successful implementation of the next phase of the upgraded China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), with its five new corridors, the report said.

“He congratulated President Xi on the success of the SCO Council of Heads of State Summit in Tianjin and offered his felicitations on the 80th anniversary of the World Anti-Fascist War.”

Lauding President Xi Jinping for his visionary and transformational leadership that has inspired China’s remaining journey towards modernisation and progress, the prime minister said that Pakistan took great pride in Beijing’s achievements and would always stand ready to work together with China in this great journey.

He also appreciated China’s unflinching support for Pakistan’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and socio-economic development, as well as the significance of CPEC as a flagship project of President Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to help both countries build an even stronger Pakistan-China community with a shared future.

The prime minister hailed President Xi’s strong commitment to strengthening multilateralism and said Pakistan fully supported China’s landmark steps in this regard, including the Global Governance Initiative, Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative, as well as Global Civilisation Initiative.

“These initiatives would serve the collective global good and contribute to regional as well as global peace, stability and development,” the PM was quoted as saying in the report.

President Xi said that China would continue to assist Pakistan in all fields of economic growth and development, especially as the two countries were now ushering in the second Phase of CPEC, which would focus on Pakistan’s most important economic sectors.

PM Shehbaz renewed his “most cordial” invitation to President Xi to undertake an official visit to Pakistan next year, when both countries would celebrate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of Pakistan-China diplomatic ties.

Six soldiers were martyred and five terrorists were killed as security forces thwarted an attack on the Federal Constabulary (FC) Headquarters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district on Tuesday, according to the military’s media wing.

A statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) issued tonight said: “During early hours of September 2, 2025, in a cowardly terrorist attack, khwarij belonging to Indian proxy Fitna-al-Khwarij targeted FC Headquarters in Bannu district.

“The Indian sponsored kharjis attempted to breach the perimeter security, however, their nefarious designs were swiftly foiled by the vigilant and resolute response by own troops. In their desperation, the kharjis rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the perimeter wall. The suicide blast resulted in the partial collapse of the perimeter wall and damage to adjacent civilian infrastructure, inflicting injuries to three innocent civilians.”

Fitna-al-Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The ISPR added that in a display of “unwavering courage and professional excellence”, troops engaged the terrorists with precision and eliminated all five of them. The ISPR said six soldiers belonging to the FC and Pakistan Army were martyred in the intense exchange of fire after “putting up a heroic fight”.

The ISPR said the clearance operation in the area would continue and the perpetrators of the “heinous and cowardly act” would be brought to justice.

“The security forces of Pakistan in step with nation remain steadfast in their resolve to eradicate Indian sponsored terrorism from the country and such sacrifices of our brave soldiers and innocent civilians further strengthen our unwavering commitment of safeguarding our nation at all costs,” it concluded.

Over the past few months, multiple areas of KP — including Bannu, Peshawar, Karak, Lakki Marwat and Bajaur — have seen a series of attacks, particularly targeting police personnel in Bannu.

Bannu Regional Police Officer Sajjad Khan earlier told Dawn.com that five policemen were injured during the operation that was led by Bannu District Police Officer Saleem Abbas inside the FC lines.

Inspector General of Police (IG) Zulfiqar Hameed said during a media briefing that police, army and FC personnel swiftly responded to the attack and killed four within an hour of the attack and later the fifth was also eliminated.

The IG said a clearance and search operation was carried out at the site. The operation’s conclusion was later confirmed by RPO Khan.

Pakistan has seen a surge in terrorism since the TTP ended its ceasefire deal with the government in November 2022, vowing to increase attacks.

Last month, police, alongside security forces in Hoveed and Wazirabad areas of Bannu, arrested “14 terrorist facilitators“ and destroyed their hideouts.

On August 3, a police constable was martyred in a terrorist attack on a checkpoint in Bannu, where an exchange of fire also left three terrorists dead and three policemen injured.

In July, ter­rorists used a quadcopter to attack a police station in Miryan, Bannu, making it the fifth such attack at the installation in a month.

According to data released by the Islamabad-based think tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), the country witnessed an alarming spike in militant violence in August this year, registering a 74 per cent increase in militant attacks compared to July, becoming the “deadliest month in over a decade“.

NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Asif on Tuesday came up with a bizarre solution to tackle floods in the country’s northern parts by suggesting that people store the floodwater and take it to their homes.While talking to a local news channel, Asif said that excess water should be taken as a “form of blessing.”“Now this water, someone should store it. The people who are sitting blocking the road should take it to their homes and store all this water there,” Asif said.

“They should put it somewhere, in some container. This water, this water — we should give it the form of a blessing by storing it. For this, big dams should also be built, which may take 8–10 years to complete,” he added.

These remarks came as monsoon rains continue to cause severe flooding in Pakistan’s Punjab province, which is facing the biggest flood in its history.According to ARY News, cited by ANI, flooding and rains have killed 33 people, hit 2,200 villages, and forced over 700,000 residents to evacuate in Punjab province.Punjab’s senior minister Maryam Aurangzeb said at a press conference on Sunday: “This is the biggest flood in the history of the Punjab. The flood has affected two million people. It’s the first time that the three rivers — Sutlej, Chenab, and Ravi — have carried such high levels of water.”Punjab, with about 150 million people, is a key farming area and Pakistan’s main wheat producer. Floods in 2022 destroyed large areas of crops in the east and south, prompting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to warn of food shortages.The National Weather Center reported that Punjab received 26.5% more monsoon rainfall between July 1 and August 27 compared with the same period last year.Pakistan’s disaster management authority said that since June 26, rain-related incidents have killed 849 people and injured 1,130 across the country.