Category: 1. Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s national space agency SUPARCO is using satellite mapping and real-time imagery to help guide rescue and relief operations, officials said on Friday, as monsoon floods have devastated much of the country, killing over 800 people since the beginning of the season and destroying farms and livestock.

The agency established its Space Application Center for Response in Emergency and Disasters (SACRED) in 2014 to provide space-based support for natural disasters, from floods and droughts to glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), earthquakes and landslides. With extreme weather striking more frequently, SACRED is now central to disaster management planning across the country.

Speaking to Arab News on Friday, a SUPARCO official explained that satellites serve as the “country’s eyes in the sky,” capturing and monitoring areas cut off by rough terrain or extreme weather, and delivering crucial information, and satellite mapping to track and respond to the unfolding disaster.

“We [SUPARCO] provide real-time imagery of the affected flood area to different institutions at the national level and provincial level,” Jahanzeb Khan, General Manager Image Processing at SUPARCO told Arab News.

“The rapid response is very important. We capture satellite images of flood-hit areas in near real time and send them to the relevant departments within an hour to speed up rescue operations and save lives,” he said, adding that pre-disaster images are also compared with fresh ones to provide critical insights, helping authorities act faster on the ground.

Aisha Rabbia, General Manager Satellite Planning, said the agency constantly monitors river shifts, dam heights, and changing water levels through its own satellites and international collaboration for timely action.

“We now have four remote sensing satellites of our own that provide real-time data, and through international collaboration we get additional recordings as well,” she said.

The official explained that space-based imagery enabled authorities to draw up timely evacuation plans even if conventional communication networks fail, as SUPARCO operates its own independent link system.

“Even in case of a complete communication breakdown, our satellites ensure the flow of critical data to the relevant departments,” she added.

Rabbia said the agency supports post-disaster recovery by helping assess crop losses, guiding urban planning in hard-hit areas, and aiding rehabilitation efforts through satellite analysis.

“Space-based technology shortens the response time as work that normally takes a day is done in hours,” she continued. “We capture imagery both day and night, without limitation. So, damage assessment and recovery planning can begin immediately.”

She said weather satellites were not in SPARCO’s resources, but they would be available soon since they were included in an upcoming plan.

Another official, Dr. Muhammad Farooq, Director SACRED, stressed the need to shift from a reactive to a proactive approach, saying SUPARCO has recently developed a Disaster Risk Assessment initiative for the National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF), known as the Natural Catastrophic Modeling Project, or simply the NatCat Project. 

“This flagship initiative of NDRMF helps disaster managers identify the most vulnerable or high-risk areas so they can take preventive measures and reduce potential damage through better planning,” he added.

SUPARCO currently operates six satellites, including two for communication and four for earth observation (EO).

“With two more EO satellites due to be launched by the end of this year, SUPARCO will be in an even stronger position to provide satellite data for national institutions, including disaster management agencies,” Farooq said.

The flood emergency, fueled by torrential monsoon rains and excess water released from upstream dams in India, has made Punjab, the country’s breadbasket and home to over half of Pakistan’s 240 million people, one of the worst-hit regions.

The disaster officials reported 20 deaths in the province this week, more than 429,000 people evacuated, and 1,769 villages inundated affecting 1.45 million people.

When confronted in 2013, the man who claimed scholars agreed on the death penalty for blasphemy told his interrogators that he could not actually read Arabic.

This man, Advocate Ismail Qureshi, is at the centre of a new documentary by the Alliance Against Blasphemy Politics Pakistan (AABP). It hosted an early screening of The Inevitable Misuse of Blasphemy Politics (2024) and a new episode titled Blasphemy as Biddat: Intra-Muslim Difference in the Age of Empires on Sunday, August 17, at Kitab Ghar. A small group of students, teachers and journalists gathered to watch the documentaries and have a Q&A with the team at the modest public library in Karachi.

Read: Minister highlights response to misuse of blasphemy laws

The documentaries are on Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code or the country’s blasphemy law which came about in 1986 and were reinforced by the Federal Shariat Court in 1991. Section 295-C says death is the sole punishment for blasphemy against the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and the law makes questioning its authority an act of blasphemy itself. What the authorities describe as the “misuse” of the law is, in fact, its only possible correct application. The legislation’s limitless definitions transform any action into potential blasphemy.

An estimated 767 people are currently in custody on blasphemy charges (as of mid-2024), according to the National Commission for Human Rights.

People accused of blasphemy are at extremely high risk of extrajudicial violence. The Centre for Social Justice recorded that at least 104 people were killed by mobs and in custody between 1994 and 2024. Rights groups say these numbers reflect not just legal enforcement but a broader climate in which accusations are made to settle personal scores, seize property or provoke mob action.

On April 13, 2017, Mashal Khan, a 23-year-old student at Abdul Wali Khan University, was attacked and killed by a mob following online allegations of blasphemy. An investigation team concluded that the allegations were fabricated. An anti-terrorism court tried 57 suspects in the lynching: one was sentenced to death, five to life imprisonment, 25 received shorter prison terms and 26 were acquitted, with further convictions issued afterwards.

The law claims legitimacy through centuries-old Islamic tradition and scholarly consensus (ijma). Yet, this supposed continuity of divine command has produced a striking statistical anomaly: whilst blasphemy accusations have risen 20,000% since 1986, not a single conviction has been upheld by the Supreme Court. Perhaps the most well known case is that of Asia Noreen, a Christian farm worker, who was convicted in 2010 and sentenced to death. After eight years in custody, she was acquitted by the Supreme Court on October 31, 2018, and left Pakistan for Canada.

The 13-minute animated Blasphemy as Biddat challenges the idea that these laws are rooted in timeless Islamic tradition. The films’ thesis is that Pakistan’s most-defended piece of legislation is actually erected on colonial legal foundations and fabricated Islamic scholarship. Its “sacred” language was copy-pasted from old British legal documents, Australian defamation cases, and American lawsuits.

One of the most startling revelations was the law’s linguistic origins. Through meticulous textual analysis, the team traced terms such as “innuendo,” “insinuation,” and “imputation” not to Islamic jurisprudence, but to Australian defamation law, American libel legislation, and Indian hate speech statutes.

And the man who claimed religious authority over these penalties has admitted he couldn’t even read Arabic and did not understand the texts he claimed to cite. “When we began reading the books of Islamist legal activists from the 1980s–90s, including Ismail Qureshi’s, it was glaringly obvious that they were misquoting these sources,” said a member of the AABP Team while speaking to The Express Tribune at the screening. “We met Qureshi almost a decade ago and that is where he acknowledged his lack of training to us.”

Ismail Qureshi’s fabricated scholarship had transformed Abu Hanifa’s eighth-century position — that a non-Muslim blasphemer is not punishable by death — into its complete opposite, forming the foundation for Pakistan’s 1991 Federal Shariat Court ruling. Qureshi wasn’t just any author, as the team reveals “He drafted the 295-C bill and successfully petitioned to make it a hadd (fixed) punishment, without understanding the sources he cited.”

Jurists, Islamic law scholars, historians, and legal experts argue that Pakistan’s blasphemy laws diverge from the “fiqhi” lineage of Islamic jurisprudence and are innovations (biddat) born of colonial and post-colonial statecraft. This shift was not organic, but shaped by colonial interventions aimed at controlling the “passions” of subject populations.

Classical Islamic jurisprudence, on the other hand, required strict categorisation of crimes, attention to intent, and context. This framework allowed more flexibility than today’s rigid interpretations, which impose harsh punishments without regard to intent or circumstance. These laws thus come in conflict with foundational Islamic legal principles of evidence, intent, and proportionality.

Read more: IHC orders probe into online blasphemy spike

Given the fraught nature of the subject, the AABP decided to use 2D flat symbolic animation rather than conventional documentary footage. This aesthetic choice created intellectual distance from what is extremely emotionally charged material, which makes space for rational analysis rather than just reactions. “Animation offers abstraction and safety,” explained a member of the team. “It lets us sidestep familiar tropes and charged imagery that often provoke defensiveness around blasphemy politics.”

So, instead of real faces or locations, animation of quivering shapes and merging boxes set to a calm voice over keeps the viewer concentrated on the ideas behind blasphemy politics. “In a context where blasphemy politics thrives on spectacle and naming,” another member added, “animation becomes a powerful medium to recentralise discourse over drama.” Complex legal concepts are broken down with shifting lines, blobs that swell and shrink and shapes that bleed into each other. Using real-life television or amateur social media video would have risked turning the documentary into trauma voyeurism.

Also: Blasphemy probe

The documentaries sift through meticulous scholarship to distinguish authentic tradition from its colonial and contemporary distortions. “The first step is to demystify the law to show that 295-C is not sacred, not divine, and not rooted in Islamic legal consensus,” said the team member. “It is a very modern law based on culture wars in the 80s.”

For this member of the team, making the film deepened his respect for Islamic legal tradition. “I saw how careful, nuanced, and ethically aware classical jurists were, especially in contrast to the hyper-modern, one-size-fits-all laws passed in the name of Islam.”

• Shahrez presented before ATC upon completion of remand.
• He was wanted in connection with attack on Jinnah House.
• Aleema’s son also faces charges of running anti-state campaign.
  

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An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore on Saturday sent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founding chairman Imran Khan’s nephew, Shahrez Khan, to jail on judicial remand in a case pertaining to the attack on Jinnah House during the May 9 riots.

Shahrez, son of Imran’s sister Aleema Khan, was arrested on August 21 in connection with the Jinnah House attack case — the same case in which his brother Shershah is also facing charges.

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.

Lahore police presented Aleema’s son before the ATC court Judge Manzer Ali Gill today upon the completion of his physical remand.

During the hearing, the prosecution sought an extension in physical remand for further investigation from the accused. 

Judge Gill, rejecting the police request, sent him on judicial remand.

It is pertinent to know that Shershah and Shahrez face charges of allegedly running anti-state campaign and involvement in the May 9 violence.

Sources had told Geo News earlier 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.

Pakistan’s soaring used car imports pose a “serious” threat to local manufacturers, according to Indus Motor Co., the local joint venture of Toyota Motor Corp.

The roughly 40,000 to 45,000 imported vehicles comprised almost one-third of the local automobile market in the 12 months through June, compared with less than 10% in 2023, Indus Chief Executive Officer Ali Asghar Jamali said on Friday.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Saturday he looked forward to meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping along with other world leaders as he arrived in China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also touched down on his first visit after a seven-year gap.

The SCO summit, to be held in the northern port city of China’s Tianjin on Sunday and Monday, will gather more than 20 world leaders in a powerful show of Global South solidarity, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. The SCO comprises China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus. Another 16 countries are affiliated as observers or “dialogue partners”.

PM Shehbaz arrived in Tianjin with Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Information Minister Attaullah Tarar.

Terming his visit “historic”, PM Shehbaz said on X today: “I look forward to meeting H.E. President Xi Jinping and other world leaders to further build upon our bilateral ties with China, our All Weather Strategic Cooperative Partner, as well as with other key countries of the region […]”

The premier expressed his aim to “enhance regional cooperation, strengthen multilateralism, and advance shared goals for peace and prosperity”.

According to a statement from the Foreign Office (FO) today, the premier is leading a delegation from Pakistan to participate in the SCO’s Council of Heads of State (CHS) summit from August 31 to September 1.

“The SCO CHS Summit will bring together heads of state and government from SCO member states, including Pakistan, Belarus, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan,” the statement read.

Leaders from Mongolia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkiye, Egypt, the Maldives, Myanmar and others, as well as the chief of the United Nations and heads of various regional and international organisations, will also attend as part of the expanded format.

“At the SCO CHS Summit, Prime Minister Sharif will present Pakistan’s perspectives on pressing regional and global issues, highlighting strategies to strengthen the SCO’s role in fostering regional cooperation and stability,” the FO stated.

PM Shehbaz is slated to reaffirm Pakistan’s commitment to promoting multilateralism, enhancing regional security and advancing sustainable development, the FO said. He is also expected to have bilateral meetings with other SCO leaders and invited members to “strengthen diplomatic relations”.

On the engagements in China, the FO said the prime minister would hold meetings with President Xi and Premier Li Qiang “during which multifaceted dimensions of Pakistan-China bilateral cooperation would be discussed”.

“He would also attend the military parade with President Xi and other world leaders being held in Beijing to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the World’s Anti-Fascist War,” the FO added.

PM Shehbaz, as per the statement, would “interact with reputed Chinese businessmen and corporate executives to discuss bilateral trade, economic and investment ties”. He would also address a Pakistan-China B2B Investment Conference in Beijing.

The statement highlighted that the visit was a part of leadership-level exchanges between the two countries.

“It manifests the importance attached by the two countries to further deepen their All Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership, reaffirm support on issues of respective core interests, advance Phase-II of CPEC and maintain regular communication on important regional and global developments,” FO said.

Ahead of Pakistan’s participation in the summit, FM Dar also posted on X, saying: “Pakistan’s all-weather strategic partnership with China is anchored in trust and strategic alignment. We value President Xi’s leadership and initiatives such as the Belt and Road, and the Global Development, Security & Civilisation Initiatives, which continue to transform economies and strengthen regional integration.”

He added: “The SCO has become a pivotal Eurasian platform, advancing cooperation in security, trade, energy, connectivity, and culture under the principles of mutual trust and shared development.”

In today’s multipolar world, FM Dar said, the SCO’s role in promoting multilateralism, stability, and inclusive growth is more vital than ever.

Leaders from Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia have been invited to the 25th SCO Heads of State Council.

Last week, the government said that PM Shehbaz’s visit to China will mark the formal launch of the second phase of the China­-Pakistan Economic Corr­idor (CPEC-II), focused on industrial cooperation, after a delay of about five years.

“Prime minister’s upcoming visit will mark the formal launch of CPEC Phase-II, with both sides expected to set clear priorities and agree on tangible, measurable outcomes,” an official announcement had said, quoting Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, focal person on the multi-billion-dollar bilateral initiative.

In July, the two countries decided to form technical working groups to explore and implement projects focusing on high-yield cotton seed development, advanced water-saving irrigation technologies, and modern farming techniques.

Modi’s visit after 7-year break

Modi also arrived in Tianjin on his first visit to China since 2018, coming straight after a trip to Japan, which pledged to invest $68 billion in India.

China and India, the world’s two most populous nations, are intense rivals competing for influence across South Asia and fought a deadly border clash in 2020.

A thaw began last October when Modi met with President Xi for the first time in five years at a summit in Russia.

Xi began welcoming leaders, including Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Egyptian Premier Moustafa Madbouly.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is also due to arrive in Tianjin ahead of the summit.

China and Russia have used the SCO — sometimes touted as a counter to the Western-dominated Nato military alliance — to deepen ties with Central Asian states.

Other leaders, including Iranian and Turkish presidents Masoud Pezeshkian and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will also attend the bloc’s largest meeting since its founding in 2001.

Multiple bilateral meetings are expected to be held on the sidelines of the summit.

The Kremlin said on Friday that Putin will discuss the Ukraine conflict with Erdogan on Monday.

Turkiye has hosted three rounds of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine this year that have failed to break the deadlock over how to end the conflict, triggered when Moscow launched its invasion of its pro-European neighbour in February 2022.

Putin will also meet with his Iranian counterpart Pezeshkian to discuss Tehran’s nuclear programme on Monday, a meeting that comes as Iran faces fresh Western pressure.

Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, triggered a “snapback” mechanism on Thursday to reinstate UN sanctions on Iran for failing to comply with commitments made in a 2015 deal over its nuclear programme.

Russia’s foreign ministry warned that the reimposition of sanctions against Iran risked “irreparable consequences”.

Tehran and Moscow have been bolstering political, military and economic ties over the past decade as Russia drifted away from the West.

Relations between them grew even closer after Russia launched its offensive against Ukraine.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday reached China, where he will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of State Meeting in Tianjin.

The premier is set to attend the 80th anniversary of China’s victory over Fascism in World War II in Beijing as well.

During the visit, he will meet President Xi Jinping and other world leaders to enhance regional cooperation, strengthen multilateralism and advance shared goals for peace and prosperity.

Earlier, the PM wrote in a post on X: “I look forward to meeting HE President Xi Jinping and other world leaders to further build upon our bilateral ties with China, our All Weather Strategic Cooperative Partner, as well as with other key countries of the region, enhance regional cooperation, strengthen multilateralism, and advance shared goals for peace and prosperity.”

The prime minister will also meet Premier Li Qiang and participate in a military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the Anti-Fascist War in Beijing alongside President Xi and other global leaders.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said that prime minister is further scheduled to interact with leading Chinese businessmen and executives to enhance trade, investment, and economic ties, and address the Pakistan-China B2B Investment Conference in Beijing.

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar and Adviser to the Prime Minister Tariq Fatemi are accompanying the premier.

The Foreign Office said the visit is part of high-level exchanges aimed at deepening the “All Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership,” advancing the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and maintaining regular communication on key regional and global issues.

The three-day important 25th meeting of SCO Heads of States is planned for 31 August, September 1 and 2.

This year’s summit will be the largest since the SCO was founded in 2001, a Chinese foreign ministry official said last week, calling the bloc an “important force in building a new type of international relations”.

Among the attendees at the SCO summit, set to take place in the northern port city of Tianjin from August 31 to September 1, will be Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian PM Narendra Modi, alongside leaders from Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

The theme of this year’s meeting will be “Upholding the Shanghai Spirit: SCO on the Move.” The annual event is likely to focus on key discussions on regional security, economic cooperation, trade and the SCO’s long-term strategic direction and way forward.

The security-focused bloc, which began as a group of six Eurasian nations, has expanded to 10 permanent members and 16 dialogue and observer countries in recent years. Its remit has also enlarged from security and counter-terrorism to economic and military cooperation.

In a separate X post, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said Pakistan’s all-weather strategic partnership with China was anchored in trust and strategic alignment, valuing President Xi Jinping’s leadership and initiatives such as the Belt and Road, as well as the Global Development, Security and Civilisation Initiatives.

He noted that the SCO had become a pivotal Eurasian platform, advancing cooperation in security, trade, energy, connectivity and culture.

In today’s multipolar world, he added, the SCO’s role in strengthening multilateralism, stability and inclusive growth was more vital than ever. Dar said Pakistan looked forward to constructive high-level engagements with the Chinese leadership and other SCO member states during the summit.

Meanwhile, Indian PM Modi arrived in China today for his first visit in over seven years to attend the SCO summit and hold bilateral talks with President Xi.

Taking to his official X handle, PM Modi said: “Landed in Tianjin, China. Looking forward to deliberations at the SCO Summit and meeting various world leaders.”

Iman Salim is used to seeing flood waters in the field of lush lilypads next to her home in the village of Kamanwala. But nothing prepared her for this week, when torrential monsoon rains that broke a 49-year record lashed the area, flooding her house with water that rose above her chest.

“The whole house has drowned. The water left nothing,” the 24-year-old said.

Kamanwala, just outside the city of Sialkot, from where the mountains of Kashmir can be seen on a clear day, is among more than 1,400 villages in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province flooded after three large rivers – the Sutlej, Chenab and Ravi – overflowed their banks because of heavy rain and the release of water from over-full dams in neighbouring India.

The rising waters have brought fears of disease, with the province’s chief minister, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, declaring an emergency in hospitals across Punjab over fears that cholera and hepatitis could spread and an increased risk of poisoning from snake bites.

Map of rivers

On Tuesday, the Phalku River, which flows out from India, Kashmir and into Pakistan’s eastern city of Sialkot, also overflowed its banks. In just a few hours, Salim’s family’s entire possessions were destroyed.

In the face of soaring inflation and the depreciation of the rupee, replacing entire life possessions and repairing homes will be impossible for many.

“This is the first time in my life that this much flood water has come,” said Salim’s father, Sayed Muhamad, a 60-year-old labourer. “There’s been no electricity, no water, no gas for three days. The damage that’s been caused is around 500,000 Pakistani rupees [£1,300].”

Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the climate crisis, despite producing less than 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Flooding is common during monsoon season, which occurs from about July to September every year. But this year’s monsoon rains – made more erratic, unpredictable and deadly by the climate emergency – have unleashed chaos that has left Pakistan and its government scrambling.

New Delhi alerted Islamabad last week to expect cross-border flooding. Since then, nearly 300,000 people have been evacuated from flood areas and Pakistani authorities have been forced to overflow riverbanks after their own dams threatened to burst.

Across the country more than 800 people have been killed in floods since late June – most of them in the north-west Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

An hour away from Sialkot, the Chenab River has risen so high it is almost touching a train track passing over it, and water rushed within a few feet of the base of huge electricity pylons.

Entire villages are lying underwater ​across the affected areas in Punjab, Pakistan’s breadbasket and home to about half of its 255 million people.

Dr Bilal Siddiq, a senior physician with Sahara Foundation, which has set up a medical camp in Kartarpur village in Jalandhar district to treat those with illnesses caused by a lack of clean water and food, told Associated Press: “Fungal and skin infections are everywhere. We’re also seeing rising cases of diarrhoea, gastric pain and malaria.”

Some flood victims around Sialkot have been left alone to fend for themselves, spending at least two days without food, water and electricity. “No one has come to help us until today,” said Shabana Zubair, 38, who has five children and was without food and water. “Our flour, rice and chickpeas were all spoiled.”

Across the streets and alleys of Naik Wadi Chownk, a rank, fish-like smell hangs in the air. Children play and swim in flood water that has lain stagnant in 30C (86F) heat and mixed with sewage from open drains blocked even before the floods.

Sialkot is home to a thriving entrepreneurial business community who independently raised funds to build what they proudly proclaim as the world’s first privately owned international airport. That same community collectively financed the refurbishment of Sialkot’s roads 25 years ago.

Nevertheless, like many other urban ares in Pakistan, the city has long suffered blocked sewers and a poor waste management system.

In 2021 the Asian Development Bank and regional government embarked on a $250m (£185m) project to replace 30km of sewage pipes in Sialkot and install a sewage pump, but the problems have not gone away.

Khawar Anwar Khawaja, the former chief executive of Sialkot international airport, whose father also built the city’s chamber of commerce, said local authorities bore partial responsibility. “Whenever there was rain, it drained very quickly but over the years, [Sialkot’s drainage system] has rotted because the local government is not playing its role in cleaning, de-silting the drains,” he said. “They’ve got billions of rupees but they’re not doing a proper job.”

Voluntary and community-funded aid deliveries in Sialkot city have quickly sprung up to fill the gap where the government has been slow to react.

A group of 14 volunteers from the charity Sherzan have been delivering cooked food, cartons of milk and water from the back of a truck pulled by a tractor – one of the few vehicles that can safely traverse the flooded alleys and roads of Sialkot and its surrounding villages.

“We have no other option. The [government] doesn’t have full facilities and medication to deal with this,” said 28-year-old Wajahat Mirza, a volunteer who has been working for flood-relief initiatives for the past 15 years. “We can pray, we can do better on our end, but we cannot expect anything from our governments.”