ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif inaugurated a model village for flood-affected families in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region during a day-long visit to Ghizer on Wednesday, pledging to provide residents with ownership documents to help them acquire new houses.
Pakistan is among the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change. It faced devastating floods triggered by unprecedented monsoon rains in 2022, which killed over 1,700 people, destroyed farms, homes and public infrastructure, and resulted in financial losses exceeding $35 billion.
Many residents in GB also lost their homes, primarily due to glacial lake outburst floods, which also swept away some key river bridges in the region.
“Today, I have come here after two years,” the prime minister told the inauguration gathering in a speech that was televised. “When I came here in August 2022, it was terrible and almost all the homes were destroyed by rains and floods. Many people’s houses had been razed to the ground.”

“That was an unfortunate day in history,” he added. “A new society has been established today for the flood affected people. They will be given their ownership documents. I have already given these documents to five or six families.”
Scientists blame Pakistan’s erratic weather patterns on climate change.

This year, the South Asian country recorded its “wettest April since 1961,” with 59.3 millimeters of rainfall, while some areas of the country faced deadly heatwaves in May and June.
Sharif is also scheduled to inaugurate several development projects, including Naltar Expressway, Greater Water Supply in Hunza and the 54MW Hydropower plant in Attabad, according to a statement released by his office.

KARACHI: Pakistani police have filed terrorism charges against a security guard accused of opening fire on four Chinese nationals at a textile mill in Karachi, injuring two on Tuesday.
The attack took place at Liberty Textile Mill in the SITE Industrial Area, according to a police report.
The Chinese nationals — identified as Wang Xing Zhong, Zheng Luwen, Zhou Baolin and Wei Sixian — were at the mill to install new machinery. They reportedly arrived daily in a bulletproof vehicle with security provided by a private firm and the Special Protection Unit (SPU) of Sindh Police.
According to the report, filed on the request of the factory’s security head Najib-ur-Rab, the Chinese nationals had just started working on machinery installation in the knitting department on the first floor when the attack occurred.
“At around 8:15 a.m., a security guard named Sharifullah, employed by Executive Security Company and stationed at Liberty Mill for four to five months, went to the first floor and, for unknown reasons, began firing indiscriminately at the Chinese nationals with a 9mm pistol, intending to kill,” the police report said.
Two of the Chinese nationals, Wang Xing Zhong and Zheng Luwen, were seriously injured and were rushed to the hospital in the factory’s ambulance. The guard fled the scene.
Police recovered 16 used 9mm shell casings at the site.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry condemned the attack, saying the country “remains resolute in bringing the responsible individual to justice.”
It added that it was working closely with the interior ministry and the Chinese embassy in Islamabad to ensure a thorough investigation.
China, breaking with tradition, recently spoke out publicly against security threats to its workers and nationals in Pakistan, where hundreds work on Beijing-funded projects linked to the over $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Last month, two Chinese nationals were killed in a suicide bombing near the international airport in Karachi. In March this year, a suicide bombing killed five Chinese engineers and a Pakistani driver in northwestern Pakistan as they headed to the Dasu Dam, the largest hydropower project in the country.
In 2022, three Chinese educators and their Pakistani driver were killed when an explosion tore through a van at the University of Karachi. A bus blast in northern Pakistan in 2021 killed 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals.
Pakistan announced in a joint statement with China last month it had agreed to increase security for Chinese citizens and projects in the South Asian nation, as Beijing called for urgent security measures following a surge in militant threats.
Sindh Home Minister Zia Ul Hassan Lanjar has directed police to conduct a “thorough investigation,” his office said soon after the recent shooting incident.
According to a statement, the minister also directed an audit of security companies providing protection to Chinese nationals and other foreigners.
“The physical and mental fitness tests of guards assigned to important duties like security should be done,” the statement quoted Lanjar as saying.