KARACHI: Like a guard in a watchtower, Nisar Khaskheli, a cotton farmer in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh, does not let his eyes leave the horizon for long.
He is keeping a lookout for a bright yellow swarm of millions of desert locusts who inch closer to Sindh’s 200,000 acres of cotton crop every day. According to him, they are now only four kilometers away from the irrigated lands of Pakistan’s second-largest cotton producing province, and the farmers are sleepless with worry, despite the government’s deployment of aircraft and pesticide-mounted vehicles to prevent an attack on the country’s prize crop.
The emergency pesticide deployment is not unwarranted: Home-grown cotton runs Pakistan’s textile industry which is its largest job provider and foreign exchange earner. As the country struggles to stave off a balance of payments’ crisis following a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund, it cannot afford to lose its cotton, which is already forecast to fall to a 17 year low this month according to official data.
“On 25th May, we spotted the locusts for the first time when they were about 18 km away from irrigated land in Sindh,” Khaskheli, who is also president of a local agriculture chamber, told Arab News.
But within days, he said, owing to favorable weather conditions for breeding and hatching, there was a huge growth in their numbers.
“It forced us to raise alarm bells and inform the authorities,” he said.
Desert locusts, swarming short-horned grasshoppers, have been destroying crops in Africa and Asia for centuries. Their ability to move in huge swarms with great speed has earned them notoriety as one of the most devastating agricultural plagues in the world.
From the Red Sea coast of Sudan and Eritria, the locusts first emerged in January this year. By February, they had hit Saudi Arabia and Iran before entering Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province in March.
“Saudi Arabia quickly launched a control operation, but the undetected and uncontrolled gregarious locusts moved toward Iran,” Muhammad Tariq Khan, director of the Department of Plant Protection (DPP) at Pakistan’s Ministry of National Food Security and Research, told Arab News.
Despite a massive control operation in Iran, Khan said some unrestrained and undetected locust swarms migrated to Balochistan.
“The conditions (for breeding) were conducive for them in Balochistan due to rainfall,” he said.
Though Balochistan is not a major cotton province like Sindh and Punjab, the huge swarms of locusts have destroyed pomegranate, watermelon, grain and cotton crops in their path according to locals, though the exact extent of the damage is not yet officially known.
According to Liaquat Shahwani, Balochistan government’s spokesperson, the damage in his province has been controlled.
“Despite a massive attack, the damage was not too high,” he said, but did not share specific estimates of crop damage.
Most farmers disagreed, and said the destruction was colossal.
“They haven’t even spared the trees,” said Naseer Baloch, a farmer in Kharan, an area infested by locusts in Balochistan, alongside districts Chaghi, Washuk, Pasni, Turbat, Uthal, Dalbandin, Panjgur and parts of Kechh.
“They attack like an army and when they advance, it looks like the earth is moving,” he said.
The last major locust infestations in Pakistan were back in 1993 and 1997, though the government lacks credible statistics to quantify the damage in both instances.
After the Balochistan outbreak, the DPP says it has moved its ground control teams to launch control operations in affected areas, but that some locust groups were now moving toward the Tharparkar and Nara deserts of Sindh, and also toward India’s Rajasthan desert.
Sindh’s agriculture minister, Muhammad Ismail Rahoo, said his department found out about the locust infestation on June 3rd and was making serious efforts to safeguard its cotton crop.
It is still unclear why news of the infestation has taken so long to reach Sindh, despite crops affected in Balochistan three months ago.
“We are not big landlords, and our crop is our only source of income,” Sindh farmer Khaskheli said. “The money we make from it helps pay our bills, pay for hospitals, our children’s schools, their weddings.”
“If the locusts are not controlled, they will not just damage our crops and deprive us of livelihood,” he said. “They will wipe out billions of rupees.”
Then he shielded his eyes from the sun, and turning away, continued to stand guard over his cotton fields.
Sindh invaded by ‘army of locusts’ amid fears of cotton devastation
Sindh invaded by ‘army of locusts’ amid fears of cotton devastation
- The locust swarms migrated from the Red Sea and entered Pakistan through Iran
- Deployment of air and ground pesticide underway to control spread of infestation to Sindh’s cotton fields
Security forces confiscate illegal weapons in operation in Pakistani district wracked by sectarian feuds
- At least 150 people have been killed in Kurram district since sectarian clashes broke out in November
- Road closures and continued fighting have disrupted people’s access to medicine, food, fuel, education, work
ISLAMABAD: An armed crackdown in the northwestern Pakistani district of Kurram that has been marred by sectarian clashes since November continued on Wednesday, with state media reporting that security forces had confiscated a large cache of illegal weapons in a search and clearance operation.
Kurram, a tribal district of around 600,000 where federal and provincial authorities have traditionally exerted limited control, has frequently experienced violence between its Sunni and Shiite communities over land and power. Travelers to and from the area often ride in convoys escorted by security officials.
The latest feuding started on Nov. 21 when gunmen ambushed a vehicle convoy and killed 52 people, mostly Shiites. The assault triggered road closures and other measures that have disrupted people’s access to medicine, food, fuel, education, and work and created a humanitarian crisis in the area, where authorities say at least 150 people have been killed in two months of feuding.
Media widely reported on Monday that Pakistani security forces had launched a “large-scale” operation targeting militants in the restive northwestern district bordering Afghanistan, after unidentified gunmen ambushed and burned aid trucks on Friday, killing up to 10 people.
“In a joint search and clearance operation by the district administration, police and security forces in the conflict-affected area of Bagan, district Kurram, a significant number of illegal weapons were recovered,” the Associated Press of Pakistan said. “Strict action would continue against elements involved in any unlawful activities.”
Violence has persisted in the region despite a peace agreement signed between the warring tribes on Jan. 1 under which both sides had committed to demolishing bunkers and handing over heavy weapons to authorities within two weeks.
Feuding tribes have been engaging in battles with machine guns and heavy weapons, isolating the remote, mountainous Kurram region. Parachinar is the main town in Kurram and a main road that connects the town to Peshawar, the provincial capital of the larger Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has been blocked since sectarian fighting began in November.
Provincial and federal authorities have been supplying relief goods and evacuating the injured and ailing from Kurram to Peshawar via helicopters since last month.
Shiite Muslims dominate parts of Kurram, although they are a minority in the rest of Pakistan, which is majority Sunni. The area has a history of sectarian conflict.
Pakistan court issues arrest warrants for top Imran Khan aides over riots led by supporters in 2023
- Khan was himself indicted last month on charges of inciting supporters to attack military’s GHQ headquarters on May 9, 2023
- Hundreds of PTI supporters and leaders were arrested while police registered cases against top leaders, including Khan
ISLAMABAD: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Wednesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for key aides of former premier Imran Khan, local media widely reported, in a case involving riots by supporters of the jailed PM’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, including attacks on military installations.
Khan was himself indicted last month on chparges of inciting his supporters to attack the military’s GHQ headquarters during protests on May 9, 2023. That day, after Pakistan’s powerful army publicly rebuked the PTI founder for repeatedly accusing a senior military officer of trying to engineer his assassination, Khan was arrested by the national anti-corruption agency in a land graft case. The arrest sparked a wave of protests by Khan supporters across the country, with rioters attacking important state buildings and ransacking military facilities, including the GHQ in the garrison city of Rawalpindi and the residence of the army’s top commander in the eastern city of Lahore.
Hundreds of PTI supporters and dozens of leaders were subsequently arrested while police registered cases against the party’s top leaders, including Khan.
Pakistan’s top TV news channel, Geo News, reported on Wednesday that non-bailable arrest warrants had been issued for Omar Ayub Khan, the opposition leader in the National Assembly, and Shibli Faraz, the opposition leader in Senate, after both failed to appear before an anti-terrorism court in a case registered at the Civil Lines Police Station.
“Warrants have also been issued ... against PTI’s Kanwal Shauzab as well as former party leader Fawad Chaudhry,” Geo reported. Several other Pakistani news channels also reported on the development.
Nearly 2,000 people were arrested following the May 9 protests and at least eight were killed. The government had called out the army to help restore order.
Though Khan was released on bail within days of the May 9 arrest, he was later arrested in August 2023 after he was handed a three-year prison sentence in a corruption case. He has been in jail since then.
His party was barred from Pakistan’s election on Feb. 8, 2024, but the would-be candidates stood as independents.
Despite the ban and Khan’s imprisonment for convictions on charges ranging from leaking state secrets to corruption, millions of the former cricketer’s supporters voted for him. Independent candidates from his party won the highest number of seats but not enough to form a government on their own. Khan cannot be part of any government while he remains in prison.
Khan and his party say all legal cases against him are based on made-up charges to keep him out of politics at the behest of the army after he had fallen out with the military’s generals. The army denies the accusation.
Last month, the government launched talks with the PTI to cool political temperatures in the South Asian nation. The two sides have met thrice and the PTI has said it will only attend a fourth round of talks if the government announced judicial commissions into accusations Khan’s party and supporters led violent protests on May 9, 2023, and Nov. 26, 2024, when protests in Islamabad demanding Khan’s release turned violent, with the PTI saying 12 supporters were killed while the state said four troops had died.
China’s ADM Group announces $250 million investment to set up EV manufacturing plant in Pakistan
- ADM Group last year announced an investment of $350 million in Pakistan’s electric vehicle sector
- Group will set up manufacturing plant, over 3,000 electric vehicle charging stations across Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: China’s ADM Group will invest $250 million to set up an electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Pakistan, state media reported on Wednesday, as Islamabad seeks for Beijing to collaborate in setting up industrial zones to manufacture electronic cars.
The government of Pakistan approved an ambitious National Electric Vehicles Policy (NEVP) in 2019 with the goal of electric vehicles comprising 30 percent of all passenger vehicle and heavy-duty truck sales by 2030, and an even more ambitious target of 90 percent by 2040. For two- and three-wheelers, as well as buses, the policy set a goal of achieving 50 percent of new sales by 2030 and 90 percent by 2040.
“Chinese Company ADM Group has announced an investment of two hundred and fifty million dollars to set up an EV manufacturing plant in Pakistan,” Radio Pakistan reported, saying the initiative was part of efforts by the Special Investment Facilitation Council set up last year to attract foreign investment.
“Transition to EVs is expected to cut fuel import costs, saving billions of dollars.”
Last year, ADM Group announced an investment of $350 million in Pakistan’s EV sector, saying it would establish more than 3,000 electric vehicle charging stations across the South Asian country.
Earlier this month, Pakistan said it would cut the power tariff for operators of electric vehicle charging stations by 45 percent as part of the ongoing reform of the energy sector designed to boost demand. The government is also planning to introduce financing schemes for e-bikes and the conversion of two- and three-wheeled petrol vehicles.
The cabinet on Jan. 15 approved a reduced tariff of 39.70 rupees ($0.14) per unit, down from 71.10 rupees previously, which will be in place within a month. The government expects an internal rate of return of more than 20 percent for investors in the sector.
According to a report submitted to the government by power ministry adviser Ammar Habib Khan and reported by Reuters, there are currently more than 30 million two- and three-wheeled vehicles in Pakistan, which consume more than $5 billion worth of petroleum annually.
The ministry plans to convert 1 million two-wheelers to electric bikes in a first phase, at an estimated net cost of 40,000 rupees per bike, according to the report, saving around $165 million in fuel import costs annually.
BYD Pakistan, a partnership between China’s BYD and Pakistani car group Mega Motors, told Reuters in September that up to 50 percent of all vehicles bought in Pakistan by 2030 will be electrified in some form in line with global targets.
President of Azad Kashmir invites China to explore investments in disputed region
- Move is likely to draw the ire of archrival India which like Pakistan claims the Kashmir region in full
- Since 1947, Pakistan and India have fought three wars over Kashmir, engaged in regular border skirmishes
ISLAMABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry has invited Chinese businesses and companies to invest in different sectors of the Pakistan-controlled disputed region, state media reported on Wednesday, in a move that is likely to draw the ire of archrival India.
The Muslim-majority Kashmir region has long been a source of tensions between nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan, leading them to fight three wars since winning independence from the British Empire in 1947. The scenic mountain region is divided between India, which rules the populous Kashmir Valley and the Hindu-dominated region around Jammu city, Pakistan, which controls a wedge of territory in the west called AJK, and China, which holds a thinly populated high-altitude area in the north. Besides Pakistan, India also has an ongoing conflict with China over their disputed frontier.
Since both India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons in 1998, Kashmir has become one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints. Islamabad says a UN-mandated referendum should take place to settle the dispute over the region, expecting that the majority of Kashmiris would opt to join Pakistan.
On Tuesday, the president of AJK, which is administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entity, met Li Ping, the director of China’s Yunnan Sunny Road and Bridge Company, and briefed him about “massive investment opportunities” in the region, APP reported.
“Seeking Chinese companies investment in different economic sectors of the State including mining and tourism, he said that the AJK government was ready to offer all kinds of facilities and support to investors,” state media said, as Sultan briefed the visiting Chinese business leader about the tourism potential of the region as well as its abundance of natural resources and precious stones, especially rubies and other minerals.
Li gave a detailed briefing to Sultan about the aims, objectives and business activities of his company, which specializes in tunnels, highways and other construction sectors.
“He also expressed his company’s desire to start its projects in Azad Kashmir,” APP said. “The President expressed satisfaction over Yunnan Sunny Company’s desire and said that the AJK government would welcome foreign investment.”
Beijing has already pledged investments in AJK under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor scheme, including the Karot and Kohala hydropower projects, the construction of M-4 motorway, and a Special Economic Zone at Mirpur.
After the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, Kashmir was expected to go to Pakistan, as other Muslim majority regions did. Its Hindu ruler wanted to stay independent but, faced with an invasion by Muslim tribesmen from Pakistan, hastily acceded to India in October 1947 in return for help against the invaders.
The dispute over the former princely state sparked the first two of three wars between India and Pakistan after independence. They fought a second in 1965, and a third, largely over what became Bangladesh, in 1971.
A UN-monitored ceasefire line agreed in 1972, called the Line of Control (LOC), splits Kashmir into two areas — one administered by India, one by Pakistan. Their armies have for decades faced off over the LOC. In 1999, the two were involved in a battle along the LOC that some analysts called an undeclared war. Their forces exchanged regular gunfire over the LOC until a truce in late 2003, which has largely held since.
India accuses Pakistan of backing a separatist insurgency in its portion of Kashmir that began in 1989, in particular by arming and training fighters. Pakistan denies this, saying it only offers political support to the Kashmiri people.
Pakistan issues drought alert for multiple regions due to scarce rainfall
- Rainfall was 40 percent lower than normal across Pakistan from Sept. 1, 2024, to Jan. 15, 2025
- In Sindh, rainfall was 52 percent lower than normal, Balochistan 45 percent, Punjab 42 percent
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has issued a drought alert for several parts of the country, warning of worsening conditions due to below-normal rainfall and rising temperatures, state-run APP reported on Wednesday.
Pakistan has the fourth-highest rate of water consumption in the world. The country’s agriculture sector uses the most amount of fresh water than any other sector. Rainfall has steadily declined over the past few decades and experts have been warning for years the country will approach “absolute scarcity” of water by 2025.
According to the PMD advisory, which followed one issued on Dec. 9, rainfall from Sept. 1, 2024, to Jan. 15, 2025, was 40 percent below normal across Pakistan, with Sindh, Balochistan, and Punjab being the most affected provinces where rainfall deficits of 52 percent, 45 percent, and 42 percent respectively have been recorded.
“The drought is particularly affecting rain-fed areas,” APP said. “Drought conditions are likely to aggravate in the coming months due to limited rainfall and above-normal temperatures, which may lead to moderate drought in some regions. Flash droughts are also anticipated.”
The advisory said in Punjab province, mild drought conditions had been observed in Attock, Chakwal, Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Bhakkar, Layyah, Multan, Rajanpur, Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Khushab, Mianwali, and Dera Ghazi Khan.
Sindh province was experiencing similar conditions in Ghotki, Jacobabad, Larkana, Sukkur, Karachi, Hyderabad, and Tharparkar, while in Balochistan, affected areas included Ormara, Kharan, Turbat, Panjgur, Lasbela, Dalbandin, and adjacent regions.
The results of the latest census in 2023 counted 241.49 million people across Pakistan with a growth rate of 2.55 percent. Linked to that, per capita water availability has been on a downward trend for decades.
In 1947, when Pakistan was created, the figure stood at about 5,000 cubic meters per person, according to the World Bank. Today it is 1,000 cubic meters. It will decline further with the population expected to double in the next 50 years, climate change experts say, pointing out that Pakistan needs intervention on a range of water-related issues: from the impact of climate change to hydropower, from transboundary water-sharing to irrigated and rain-fed agriculture, and from drinking water to sanitation.
