Torrential rains have been predicted in the country from August 14 to August 18.
The weather department shared details of the new spell, saying monsoon winds from the West, Arabian Sea, and Bay of Bengal will affect the country. Heavy rains will descend in some places in Islamabad, Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Kashmir.
There is a possibility of light rain in the coastal areas of Sindh during the evening or night of August 15 to August 18, according to the meteorological department.
Additionally, rain continues in various districts of Balochistan, and the Meteorological Department has predicted a new spell of rain with wind and thunder in 16 districts from August 15.
Meteorologists have also warned of strong winds and thunderstorms in the coastal areas of Khuzdar, Lasbela, Awaran, Kalat, Zhob, Barkhan, Musa Khel, Mastung, Sibi, Shirani, Kohlu, Bolan, Harnai, Nasirabad, Jafarabad and Makran during August 15 to 18. Intermittent rain and heavy rain in some places have been predicted. 6.6 mm of rain was recorded in Barkhan and Kalat during the last 24 hours.
Besides this, Monday was the hottest day in Nokundi, with a maximum temperature of 47 degrees Celsius.
Heavy rainfall across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and Gilgit-Baltistan on Sunday has resulted in at least 12 deaths and 21 injuries over the past 24 hours.
The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa confirmed the 12 fatalities. According to PDMA, six people died in Karak district, and one each in Lower Dir, Charsadda, and South Waziristan districts. In Karak’s Lawaghar Algada area, four individuals were swept away by floods.
In Tank district, a woman and her two children were killed, and four other family members were injured when their roof collapsed. The deceased have been identified as Asma Bibi, her daughter Sadia Bibi, and her son Waheed Ullah.
Tank-South Waziristan road is closed due to flood conditions in local streams and nullahs. In Mansehra district, thousands of tourists and locals stranded in Kaghan and Manor valleys for six days could leave on foot after the Frontier Works Organisation constructed a temporary pavement on the Manor stream in Mahandri. Flash floods caused significant damage in the Kaghan and Manor valleys, including the destruction of the central bridge on the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road. A woman and her son and approximately two dozen hotels, houses, and electric turbines were washed away in the floods.
The district administration has advised tourists to avoid Kaghan Valley until conditions improve. An artificial lake formed at Mahandri due to large boulders blocking the Kunhar River flow is causing concerns, and authorities are debating whether to burst it or create spillways.
In Mohmand district, a bridge on the Aqrab Daag to Shaheed Banda Daman link road near Babi Mohmand has been damaged. This has disrupted traffic between Aqrab Daag and Ekkaghund Bazaar, and authorities have closed the bridge.
In Balochistan, the National Disaster Management Authority has warned of high to very high levels of flash flooding in several regions, including the Zhob, Kalat, Nasirabad, and Sibbi divisions and local nullahs in D.G. Khan. These floods could damage infrastructure and impact communities near these waterways. Northern regions, including the catchment areas of the Kabul River and its tributaries, have received substantial rainfall, potentially causing high flooding in Nowshera and its tributaries. Authorities have been instructed to prepare for the effects of these extreme weather conditions.
In Gilgit-Baltistan, flooding from the Rahimabad nullah has damaged cultivated land, uprooted trees, and destroyed water supply channels downstream. The floodwaters have crossed the Rahimabad bridge on the KKH, though the bridge remains intact. The flood also blocked the Hunza river flow at Rahimabad village, causing land erosion in the Jutal, Nomal, and Faizanad areas. Additionally, flooding from the Jaglote Guru nullah has damaged a hotel and other properties, and the Babusar-Chilas Road at Diamer has been blocked and damaged. The Mushkay area has also significantly damaged land, private properties, and water supply channels.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Nawaz Sharif has decided to restart political activities after the holy month of Muharram. Party insiders confirmed that the former Prime Minister is set to travel across the country to strengthen his political presence.
Sharif will initially visit multiple districts in Punjab to mobilize the party at the district level and revive the party at grassroot level to support it in upcoming political challenges.
Beyond Punjab, the former Prime Minister will also visit Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and other provinces of the country. Leaders of PML-N, including Rana Sanaullah and Anusha Rahman, will schedule Nawaz Sharif’s visits
A Brazilian citizen fell and died while paragliding in the Shigar district of Gilgit Baltistan on Thursday.
Shigar DC Waliullah Falahi told Dawn that the tourist, identified as Raineri Rodrigo Chaddad, started the adventure from a mountain in Askoli Shigar. Raineri didn’t have a permit for the activity, and he died on the spot after the fall.
DC asserted that action will be taken against the managing director of the victim’s tour operator who allowed him to take part in the activity without the requisite permit. An autopsy will be carried out shortly.
While Pakistan’s dangerous adventure sports are generally considered safe, the weather can turn quite fast. Three Japanese climbers have been declared dead in less than a month while descending one of the highest mountains in northern Pakistan.
People of Gilgit-Baltistan have been warned of possible Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (Glof) events and floods this week due to the rising temperature in the region.
Pakistan Meteorological Department on Monday alerted local authorities that daytime temperatures in GB and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are expected to remain four to six degrees Celsius, higher than normal, between May 21 and 27.
Wind and thunderstorms are also expected in this time span, reports Dawn.
Glof and flash floods are likely to affect vulnerable snow-covered and glaciated areas of Gilgit Baltistan and the Chitral district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Local authorities have asked people living near glaciers should take precautionary measures. Tourists have also been advised to be careful during rain.
In 2022, flash floods and Glofs hit many villages in the Hunza, Nagar, Ghizer, Astore, Skardu, and Gilgit districts of GB.
At least 20 people were killed on Friday when a bus plunged into a deep valley in Pakistan’s mountainous northern region, police said.
The driver lost control of the vehicle on a bend near the city of Chilas, in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, around dawn, falling into a rocky ravine where the River Indus flows.
“The local Ulema (Muslim leader) announced the news of the accident from the loudspeaker of the mosque and urged the people to donate blood for the injured,” Azmat Shah, a police official in the city told AFP.
“Rescue operations have been completed. Among the 21 injured, the condition of five is very critical.”
The bus was travelling from the capital Islamabad to Gilgit.
Road accidents with high fatalities are common in Pakistan, where safety measures are lax, driver training is poor and transport infrastructure often decrepit.
Ali Amin Gandapur, leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), contested as an independent candidate in the recent elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He won the vote to become the new chief minister of the province on Friday afternoon, after the voting finished in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly.
PTI founder Imran Khan has nominated Ali Amin Gandapur as the party’s candidate for KP Chief Minister. There is a high chance of his winning based on the number of PTI-backed members in the provincial assembly.
The former federal minister decided to contest the top provincial post in an independent capacity after refusing to join the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) — the party which was joined by PTI-backed independent winners to claim their seats.
Gandapur was the former federal minister of Kashmir affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan during the PTI government in the centre from October 2018 to April 2022.
Previously, he was a member of the KP Assembly from 2013 to 2018 and served as provincial minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for revenue.
Google Trends offer an insight into the popularity and curiosity political leaders enjoy among the masses. As the elections are drawing near, we took a peak into the data Google Trends have recorded over the last 30 days.
The highest and ever-increasing line graph is Imran Khan’s. The highest peak was shown on January 30 with Khan hitting the record 100 score whereas his contemporaries, Nawaz stood on 15, Maryam Nawaz at eight, Bilawal-Bhutto Zardari at three, and Hamza Shehbaz being the lowest: less than one.
However, it is important to note that Imran’s progressively increasing arc starts dropping successively in the days after Jan 30.
On the other hand, except for Hamza Shehbaz, the other three is slowly on an upward trend.
Breakdown of regions
PTI founder and jailed leader Imran Khan is most popular all over Pakistan according to Google Trends.
Punjab
In Punjab, the most popular choices for Chief Ministership, Hamza Shehbaz, and Maryam Nawaz contrary to popular perception, are not being searched so much. After Khan winning with more than 69 percent of searches, Nawaz Sharif is at 17 percent while Maryam is at nine percent. It appears that people in Punjab are comparatively more interested in Bilawal than Hamza who has 1 percent searches from all over the province.
However, it is important to note that out of all the provinces, Punjab has shown more interest in PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif. Sindh has shown the most interest after Punjab, which is 11 percent, 10 percent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, nine percent in Balochistan, and seven percent in former FATA.
Sindh
After Imran Khan (69 percent) former Foreign Minister and Chairman of Pakistan People’s Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is unsurprisingly most popular in Sindh with 13 percent of Google searches. Second in line is Punjab and third is Balochistan. After him is Nawaz (11 percent) followed by Maryam (7 percent).
Balochistan
Imran Khan leading the slot here with 84 percent followed by Nawaz (9 percent), Maryam (4 percent), and Biawal Bhutto (3 percent). Hamza does not invoke public curiosity even the slightest.
Gilgit Baltistan
Imran Khan has a 100 percent popularity rate in Gilgit Baltistan, where it seems no other party leader stands a chance, implying that there were minor searches of them in GB.
Former FATA
Interestingly, in the former federally administered tribal areas, only Imran Khan and Nawaz Sharif were searched for, Khan at 93 per cent of searches and Nawaz at seven percent.
Though Google search and Google trends are not the ultimate parameter of a party leader’s popularity, they certainly are proof of what netizens are most interested in and the social media footing of a politician.
An astounding 85 people have committed suicide since January 2022 in Gilgit Baltistan, including 50 males and 35 females.
In a shocking revelation made by the Pamir Times, the numbers are showing a grim and a less-talked-about reality of Gilgit Baltistan region where contrary to popular belief, more men and boys are dying by taking their own lives compared to girls and women.
Grim Numbers: 85 people have taken their own lives since January 2022 in Gilgit-Baltistan https://t.co/kuxwnOxInW
Due to the stigma attached to suicide, not all cases are reported in the media. Sometimes even homicides are presented as suicides to save the perpetrators.
There could be a number of factors which are pushing people to the brink but at the heart of it is deteriorating state of mental health among the inhabitants of the region.
Even though the Government has in recent years made mental health a priority by making a helpline to offer support and counselling, the efforts are not enough.
Long awaited local bodies elections are going to take place in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) for the first time in 18 years. Preparations are in full swing for the upcoming polls.
GB Chief Election Commissioner Raja Shahbaz Khan has said that local body elections will be held in the last week of November. The process of delimitation is in progress, but the demarcation process is already complete.
The Local Bodies Act 2014 took place on July 20, 2023, in GB. Raja Shahbaz Khan also described that, after door-to-door verification, the voter list has been compiled and will soon be made public.
On the other hand, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has also arranged a training workshop for government officials in the region.
The workshop’s fundamental purpose was to provide training to commissioners, deputy commissioners, and assistant commissioners from Gilgit, Diamer, and Baltistan divisions.
While addressing the closing ceremony of the workshop, GB Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan said that local bodies election is the priority of the government.
