Category: 1. Pakistan

The ongoing torrential rains and surging floods have inundated large swaths of farmlands and destroyed ready-to-reap crops across Pakistan, triggering fears of a food crisis and inflation, the UN and growers warned on Monday.

The raging floods struck the northeastern Punjab, the country’s largest province and food basket, last week, submerging hundreds of villages, schools and health centres, washing away livestock and destroying crops, aside from killing around 50 people and triggering evacuations.

The surging floods have so far affected more than 2 million people, in addition to the evacuation of more than 700,000 people, according to official statistics.

The water is flowing further south to fall into the mighty Indus River and is feared to wreak havoc on Sindh in the coming days.

“This isn’t normal — yet it’s becoming the new normal. Monsoons, driven by climate change, now bring fear and devastation to communities across Pakistan,” Mo Yahya, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator, said in a post on X, after visiting the flood-hit areas.

“Flooded rice fields stretch as far as the eye can see. Farmers now face months without crops or income until the next planting season,” he said, while posting a video of flooded farmlands in Hafizabad district.

“This is only the beginning — more intense rains are expected in the coming weeks. As the water flows further south, it will threaten more families with displacement and destruction,” Yahya added.

“This is not just another natural disaster; this is climate change.”

Endorsing the warning, Waqar Ahmad, the secretary general of Kisan Board of Pakistan, a nationwide farmers body, said that the catastrophic floods have destroyed the three main crops of rice, sugarcane and sesame (oil-rich seeds) across Punjab.

“Rice crop has particularly taken a toll as the floods have hit the major rice-producing districts,” Rizvi told Anadolu.

According to him, 70 per cent of the standing rice crop has been destroyed by the latest floods.

He cautioned that if neighbouring India releases another deluge of floodwaters towards Pakistan, the remaining amounts of the standing crops will be badly affected.

Waheed Ahmad, the head of Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exports Association, fears that the latest floods would likely cause food inflation as massive deluges have destroyed huge amounts of crops and vegetables across Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He urged the government to lift the levy on vegetable and fruit imports from Afghanistan and Iran to cope with the looming food shortages.

ISLAMABAD: Indian dam releases and heavy monsoon rains have raised the risk of major flooding in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, where at least 33 people have died and 2 million have been displaced since last week, officials said on Monday.

Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province and the country’s agricultural heartland, has been inundated by abnormally high monsoon downpours compounded by excess water flowing in from neighboring India. Nationwide, the seasonal rains and floods have killed 854 people since June 26.

“All relevant departments are on alert due to water being released into the Chenab by India,” Irfan Ali Kathia, director general of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Punjab, told reporters. “Punjab is monitoring the situation in the rivers round the clock.”

Kathia said the province was mounting the “largest rescue and relief operation” in its history, with food and basic necessities being provided to displaced families.

Punjab Relief Commissioner Nabeel Javed said 506 relief and 352 medical camps had been established in affected areas. More than 17,000 people have received health care, he added, while over 500,000 head of livestock had been shifted to safer locations.

Kathia said a flood wave in the Chenab was moving toward Trimmu Headworks, with flows expected to rise from 479,000 to 700,000 cusecs by Monday evening.

He warned of an “extremely high flood level” at Balloki on the Ravi river, where flows had already surged to 168,000 cusecs. The Sutlej was flowing at 253,000 cusecs, while at Panjnad, the confluence of Punjab’s five rivers, water levels were expected to reach around one million cusecs between Sept. 2–3.

Separately, Pakistan’s commissioner for Indus Waters circulated a letter to government departments citing an Indian High Commission warning of possible “high flood” levels at Harike and Ferozepur on the Sutlej. 

India routinely releases excess water from its reservoirs when they reach capacity, under arrangements governed by the Indus Waters Treaty.

CLIMATE EMERGENCY

Pakistan, ranked among the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, has experienced increasingly frequent and erratic weather events in recent years, including heat waves, untimely rains, cyclones and droughts.

Lt. Gen. Inam Haider Malik, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), said Sunday that Pakistan was in a state of climate emergency, with “major natural hazards hitting every two months” and now posing a grave national security threat.

“After every two months, Pakistan is facing a big disaster … and unfortunately this is a part of reality,” Malik told reporters, warning that climate change would intensify in coming years and calling it a “national security” issue for the country. 

The current flooding has revived memories of the catastrophic 2022 deluge, when a third of Pakistan was submerged, more than 1,700 people were killed, 30 million displaced and damages estimated at $35 billion.

India’s engagement with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a group where China has a central role, may intrigue many in the West. At the same time, for many others, India’s engagement with the SCO is a must to not just secure its national interests, but also to keep the group from becoming a Chinese pawn.

As China observes say, Beijing has long wanted to use the SCO and Brics as a tool in its competition with the United States. Chinese President Xi Jinping has sought to use the SCO and Brics as an extension of the
anti-Western bloc that he has propped with like-minded countries of Russia, North Korea, and Iran.

However, India’s engagement with these groups ensures that these groups remain ’non-Western’ in their character and not ‘anti-Western’, according to Anushka Saxena, a China researcher at the Takshashila Institution.

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India’s influence in Brics as a founding member ensures that the focus remains on economic cooperation and the group does not become a tool in China’s confrontation with the United States.

For example, while US President Donald Trump has threatened Brics nations with tariffs on multiple occasions over concerns of a ‘Brics currency’,
India has categorically stated Brics has no intention of coming up with a Brics currency or undermining the international trade in US dollars. On the other hand, such a system might suit China as it eyes to dominate global trade order. But India’s presence in the Brics ensures that China cannot use Brics to achieve the goal.

‘India is disruptor in China-centric SCO’

India’s engagement with every multilateral group, from G-20 to Quad and SCO, has served a distinct purpose.

While Quad has been critical in balancing Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific, the engagement with SCO and Brics is critical to prevent these institutions from becoming anti-Western blocs. This also highlights the different world views of India and China.

While both India and China engage with developing countries, their approaches are contrasting in nature.

While India sees Global South’s countries as ’non-Western’ and works as a bridge between the developed and the developing world, China seeks to use these countries as part of its ‘anti-West’ agenda. While India seeks a genuine multipolar world where the Global South has a strong place of its own, China is suspected of envisioning another unipolar world where it seeks to replace the United States as the sole superpower and use the Global South as an anti-Western bloc to support such ambitions.

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In an
interview with Firstpost, Saxena earlier said that India’s role as a disruptor is vital in the SCO.

“If China continues to propagate the idea that these groupings are anti-West, India’s presence becomes necessary to maintain the balance and act as a bridge with the West,” said Saxena.

She further said, “In Brics, India’s priorities lie in making sure that principled guidelines are laid out to set benchmarks for membership, in creating space for consensus-building against the possibility of China’s influence-peddling, and in attempting to retain the image and brand value of Brics as a community of developing market economies demanding more voice in global governance.”

Moreover, even though SCO’s counter-terror programme, the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), has appeared a weak mechanism to address India security concerns arising from the challenges of terrorism emerging from Pakistan, an SCO member and a close China ally, New Delhi’s presence in the bloc has enabled it be a voice at the table that counters the dominance of a single nation, which is critical for a country that wishes to build a major power status regionally and globally, said Saxena.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has predicted cloudy weather in Karachi on Monday, with chances of light drizzle in the evening and night.

According to the Met Office, sea breezes have resumed in the city, improving the overall weather conditions. However, due to high humidity, residents may experience discomfort from the heat during the day. The maximum temperature is expected to reach 34°C. Officials clarified that no heavy rainfall is forecast for Karachi this week.

Meanwhile, parts of Punjab already hit by severe floods are likely to face more challenges as heavy to very heavy rainfall is expected from Monday till Wednesday.

The National Emergency Operations Center of the NDMA has issued an alert for Islamabad and multiple districts of Punjab, warning of an intensification of the flood situation.

The flood-hit districts likely to be affected include Lahore, Sialkot, Narowal, Sheikhupura, Chiniot, Sargodha, Bhakkar, Mianwali, and Faisalabad. Other vulnerable areas include Murree, Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Attock, Mandi Bahauddin, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Hafizabad, Dera Ghazi Khan, Sahiwal, Multan, Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, and Rahim Yar Khan.

Authorities have cautioned that heavy rains in upper regions, coupled with high river flows, may cause a sharp rise in water levels at Marala Headworks, potentially worsening the flood situation in nearby areas.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — An army helicopter on a routine flight crashed on Monday in northern Pakistan, killing two pilots and three technicians on board, a government spokesman said.

The helicopter apparently went down in the Gilgit-Baltistan region due to a technical fault and then caught fire, Faizullah Faraq, the regional government spokesman, said. He provided no further details, and said authorities are investigating.

Such crashes are not uncommon in Pakistan. Last month, a helicopter carrying relief supplies to the flood-hit northwestern Bajaur region crashed in bad weather, killing all five people on board. And in September 2024, six people were killed when another helicopter went down in the northwest due to engine failure.

The helicopter was carrying out “a test landing on a newly proposed helipad” when it came down, a senior police official said.

A Pakistan government helicopter crashed on Monday near the Thore area of Chilas in the Diamer district of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), killing all five people on board, a police official said.

The helicopter was carrying out “a test landing on a newly proposed helipad” in a mountainous tourist area when it came down, Abdul Hameed, a senior police officer in Diamer district, told AFP.

“Among the killed were two pilots and three technicians,” he said.

The aircraft crashed in the Chilas area of Diamer district, Gilgit-Baltistan government spokesperson Faizullah Faraq said in a statement.

The exact reason for the crash, which is believed to have involved a Mi-17 chopper, was not known, but it marks the second crash in recent weeks after another government MI-17 helicopter crashed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province while carrying out flood relief efforts.

Gilgit-Baltistan, known for its high peaks and remote valleys, is a hub for Pakistan’s strategic development projects.

(This is a developing story.)

Get the latest headlines from US news and global updates from Pakistan, UK, Bangladesh, and Russia get all the latest headlines in one place with including Trump-Putin meet Liveon Hindustan Times.

Get the latest headlines from US news and global updates from Pakistan, UK, Bangladesh, and Russia get all the latest headlines in one place with including Trump-Putin meet Liveon Hindustan Times.

News / World News / Pakistan govt helicopter crashes in Gilgit-Baltistan region, 5 killed: Report

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CHINIOT: Across the fertile plains of Pakistan’s Punjab, families are struggling to rebuild their lives after the worst flooding in decades swept away homes, destroyed crops, and drowned livestock.

“Thirteen of my 15 acres are gone,” said Muhammad Amjad, 45, a rice and potato farmer in Chiniot, as he stood by submerged fields. “Our rice is completely destroyed. Women and children have evacuated. Men are left guarding what remains.”

The provincial disaster management authority said more than two million people have been affected, with more than 2,000 villages inundated.

Approximately 760,000 people and 516,000 animals have been evacuated, and at least 33 people have died in less than a week.

Amish Sultan, 50, lost his only source of income.

“I have 10 buffaloes. They’re so weak there’s no milk left for my children, let alone to sell. I used to earn 100,000 to 150,000 rupees a month. That stability is gone.”

Farm labourer Mehdi Hassan, 40, said entire neighbourhoods were washed away.

“My home is completely destroyed. We’ve been left on the roadside with whatever we could carry. We tried to build our own dams but the water still took everything.”

Punjab floods kill 30; authorities breach dykes to divert rising waters

Officials say the floods are the worst in decades, with major dams near capacity, and more rain is forecast.

Bumper to bust

Farmers and exporters warn the impact on agriculture will be staggering. Rice, sugarcane, maize, vegetables, and cotton fields across Punjab are under water.

“We were expecting a bumper rice crop this year,” said Ibrahim Shafiq, export manager at Latif Rice Mills.

“Paddy was forecast to open at 3,200–3,600 rupees per 40kg, but with flood damage, prices could rise to 5,000–5,500. That will push rice prices up for local consumers and make us uncompetitive against India internationally.”

Cotton losses also threaten the textile industry, which makes up more than half of Pakistan’s exports, at a time when the country faces a 19% U.S. tariff in its biggest market.

Agriculture technology firm Farmdar said the damage is likely to be exponential, given the vast stretches of farmland along the rivers now under water.

Ghasharib Shoukat, co-founder of commodities platform Zarai Mandi warned wheat, vegetable, and cotton shortages would ripple through supply chains, hurting exports and household budgets.

The disaster comes at a sensitive moment for Pakistan’s fragile economy. Inflation had cooled to 4.1% in July from 11.1% a year earlier, and food inflation, which spiked above 50% in 2023, had eased.

Officials now expect the August inflation reading, due Monday, to come in at 4–5%, with food shortages already driving prices higher. Analysts say delayed wheat sowing, shrinking rice exports and the need to import cotton will deepen the pressure.

Tents now, tomorrow unknown

The destruction extends beyond fields. In Lahore, 38-year-old rickshaw driver Aslam said he waded through six feet (two metres) of water to pull his three-wheeler vehicle to safety.

“I’ve lived near the Ravi all my life and it never flooded my home before. This time it came inside in hours. If I hadn’t saved my rickshaw, we would have lost everything. It is my only livelihood,” said Aslam, who is now living in a relief tent.

A muddy tent city has been erected near the Ravi River, where families huddle under tarpaulins and tents, some beside foul-smelling drains.

About 150 to 200 camps have been set up for the displaced just in that area, said Dr. Ijaz Nazeer of Al Khidmat Foundation. Each tent is home to around five to eight people.

Flood fury in Punjab

With three of Pakistan’s main rivers in flood, authorities in the Punjab have set up 511 relief camps, 351 medical sites, and 321 veterinary facilities, evacuating nearly 481,000 people and 405,000 animals so far.
More than 15,000 police officers have been deployed as monsoon rains continue.

Farmers and experts warn the cost of recovery will run into billions of rupees to rebuild homes and re-establish farms.

Farmer and activist Aamer Hayat Bhandara said unless the recovery is supported, food insecurity will deepen.

“Farmers grow the food that sustains us all. If they are left alone in times of disaster, the whole nation will suffer,” he said.