ISLAMABAD: The slow melting of glaciers and snow in northern Pakistan due to low temperatures is significantly depleting the country’s water reservoirs which can lead to food and energy insecurity, a senior government official warned on Tuesday.
The South Asian nation of 220 million is home to 7,253 glaciers, with more glacial ice than any other country on earth outside the polar regions.
But climate change is “eating away Himalayan glaciers at a dramatic rate,” a study published last year in the journal Science Advances noted.
As glacier ice melts, it can collect in large glacial lakes, which are at risk of bursting through their banks and creating deadly flash floods downstream. More than 3,000 of those lakes had formed as of 2018, with 33 of them considered hazardous and more than 7 million people at risk downstream, according to UNDP.
Now, there is an added dimension to the problem of flooding:
“The drop in temperature in the northern areas, especially Skardu, has resulted in a significant reduction in water inflows in our rivers, and this is obviously worrisome for all of us,” Muhammad Khalid Idrees Rana, director operations at the Indus River System Authority, told Arab News.
Pakistan’s water storage capacity is now only for 33 days which, experts say, should be enhanced to at least 100 days to ensure much needed water supplies for agriculture, industry and other purposes.
The country’s river flows, heavily dependent on glacial melt (41 percent), snowmelt (22 percent) and rainfall (27 percent), are suffering from slow glacial melt, officials say. The Indus system receives an annual influx of 134.8-million-acre feet of water while Pakistan receives snowfall only in the northern areas during winter.
According to the Ministry of Water Resources, Pakistan’s stored water has plummeted to one-million-acre feet, though it stood at seven-million-acre feet during the corresponding period last year.
He said the temperature in the country’s northern regions housing glaciers and snow was usually 22-23°C during this time of the year, but currently stood between 16°C and 19°C due to thick clouds.
“Climate change has been severely impacting our water inflows from glaciers,” he said. “If the current temperature prolongs for another seven to eight days, we may have to cut the water share of provinces.”
Going by the ministry’s data, water inflows from the northern areas in the Indus water system have reduced by 22 percent compared to last year’s inflows.
Rana told Arab News the prevailing water situation in the country could delay rice sowing as cotton sowing in Punjab was already in process and completed in Sindh.
“There is no imminent threat to drinking water supplies in the provinces,” he added.
Water flows in the system were registered at 176,000 cusecs as of Monday while the flows that the country received a day before stood at 188,000 cusecs per day. Last year, during the same period, average water flows stood at 225,000 cusecs.
Average water inflows in the last 10 years have been recorded at 218,000 cusecs per day, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.
Experts estimate that around 60 percent of Pakistan’s water is currently lost as runoff to the sea due to lack of reservoirs.
Dr. Pervez Amir, director of the Pakistan Water Partnership, said the country would continue to face water shortage issues until it constructed more reservoirs to collect around 17-million-acre-feet of water coming from the Kabul River every year.
“Our food and energy security will be at stake in the years to come if we fail to harness excess water from different resources,” he told Arab News. “We should also abandon water guzzling crops like rice and sugarcane to save the precious resource.”
Water shortages loom in Pakistan as temperature drops slow glacial melt in north
https://arab.news/87cuq
Water shortages loom in Pakistan as temperature drops slow glacial melt in north
- Water inflows from the northern areas to Indus water system reduced by 22 percent compared to last year
- Experts say 60 percent of Pakistan’s water currently lost as runoff to the sea due to lack of reservoirs in the country
Government helicopters continue to deliver aid to Pakistani district wracked by sectarian feuds
- Police say at least 136 killed in fresh sectarian feuds in Kurram that started last month
- Northwestern district has for decades seen fighting between Shia and Sunni groups
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday humanitarian aid continued to be delivered to the northwestern Khurram district where the blockade of a main highway since last month following sectarian clashes in the region has triggered a humanitarian crisis.
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 Shia communities over land and power. Travelers to and from the town 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 Shias. The assault triggered road closures and other measures that have disrupted people’s access to medicine, food, fuel, education and work. Over 130 people have been killed in the fighting that has ensued after the convoy attack, according to police records.
The provincial and federal governments and the Edhi Foundation charity last week started sending medicines to the region via helicopters.
“On the instructions of Prime Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, the Cabinet Division helicopter has been allocated for the provision of medicines, transfer of patients and other relief activities in Parachinar,” Sharif’s office said in a statement.
Parachinar is the main town in Kurram and a main road that connects the region to Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has been blocked since sectarian fighting began late last month.
“The National Disaster Management Authority is carrying out this important relief operation to deliver medicines to Parachinar to meet the emergency medical needs of children, women and elderly people of Parachinar,” the PM’s office said.
On Wednesday morning, a government helicopter carrying 500 kilograms of medicines reached Parachinar and returned to Islamabad, the federal capital, with four patients.
“The second helicopter has left Islamabad for Parachinar this afternoon carrying another 500 kg of medicines and on its return, it will bring patients from Parachinar to Islamabad,” the PM’s office said.
Kurram police spokesman Riaz Khan told Arab News on Monday least 136 people had been killed in the violence since last month. If you added those who had died due to lack of access to hospitals and medicines following the road closures, the number reached at least 200, the police officer said.
Pakistani media widely reported on Wednesday at least 100 children has died in Kurram due to lack of access to medication and health facilities.
The KP provincial government last week launched a helicopter service to evacuate people and transport aid and medicines to Kurran amid the closer of the Parachinar-Peshawar road.
The KP government also said last week authorities had decided to dismantle private bunkers — observation posts used in the fighting by both sides — and given a deadline of Feb. 1 for tribesmen in Kurram to handover heavy weapons.
Local tribesmen have so far reportedly refused to surrender their weapons, citing concerns about their safety.
Pakistan air strikes kill 46 in Afghanistan — Taliban spokesman
- Zabihullah Mujahid says most of the dead were women and children, six wounded, mostly children
- There has been no official comment from Pakistani authorities on the latest strike in Afghan territory
KABUL: Pakistan air strikes in an eastern border province of Afghanistan had killed 46 people, the Taliban government spokesman told AFP on Wednesday.
There has been no official comment from Pakistani authorities on the latest strike in Afghan territory.
“Last night [Tuesday], Pakistan bombarded four points in the Barmal district of Paktika province. The total number of dead is 46, most of whom were children and women,” spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
He added that six more people were wounded, mostly children.
An Afghan defense ministry statement late Tuesday condemned the latest strikes by Pakistan on Afghan territory, calling them “barbaric” and a “clear aggression.”
“The Islamic Emirate will not leave this cowardly act unanswered, but rather considers the defense of its territory and sovereignty to be its inalienable right,” the statement said, using the Taliban authorities’ name for the government.
Deadly air strikes by Pakistan’s military in the border regions of Afghanistan in March that the Taliban authorities said killed eight civilians prompted skirmishes on the frontier.
A Barmal resident, Maleel, told AFP Tuesday’s strikes killed 18 members of one family.
“The bombardment hit two or three houses, in one house, 18 people were killed, the whole family lost their lives,” he said.
He said a strike killed three people in another house and wounded several others, who were taken to hospital.
Border tensions between the two countries have escalated since the Taliban government seized power in 2021, with Pakistan battling a resurgence of militant violence in its western border regions.
Islamabad has accused Kabul’s Taliban authorities of harboring militant fighters, allowing them to strike on Pakistani soil with impunity.
Kabul has denied the allegations.
The strike comes after the Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and share a common ideology with their Afghan counterparts, last week claimed a raid on an army outpost near the border with Afghanistan, which Pakistani intelligence officials said killed 16 soldiers.
Earlier Tuesday, high-level Taliban officials were meeting with Pakistan’s special envoy for Afghanistan who was on a visit to Kabul.
UAE, other nations now require police verification for Pakistanis seeking work visas — official
- Pakistani immigration official says visit visa applicants to UAE do not need police certificates
- Secretary for Overseas Pakistanis says unskilled labor facing visa delays, no issue for skilled workers
KARACHI: Pakistanis seeking work visas for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other countries are now required to produce police verification certificates, the director general of the Bureau of Emigration & Overseas Employment confirmed to Arab News this week.
The development comes amid recent media reports of a decline in UAE visas for Pakistanis and a decrease in overall overseas employment for nationals of Pakistan, allegedly due to their lack of respect for local laws and customs and for participating in political activities and sloganeering while abroad.
On Monday, the Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development on Monday convened a special session at the Parliament House to deliberate what it described as the UAE’s “unofficial visa restrictions,” calling on the Pakistan government to keep the public informed about the real status of the issue.
Last week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the UAE was taking steps to streamline visas for Pakistanis. The Gulf state’s consul general in Karachi, Dr. Bakheet Ateeq Al Remeithi, has recently said there was no visa ban on Pakistani nationals.
“This police verification is for work purposes, and it is also for other countries,” DG Bureau of Emigration, Muhammad Tayyab, told Arab News in an interview on Tuesday, adding that his statement in this regard to the Senate committee session only related to work visas.
“The media reporting on this matter, in my opinion, should have been a bit more cautious,” he said. “My department deals with people who go abroad for work. My department has nothing to do with people who are going on visits, personal visits or tours.”
Tayyab said he had informed the Senate committee that a large number of Pakistanis had visited the UAE during 2024.
“I made it very clear in the committee yesterday that if there were restrictions, then approximately more than 65,000 people would not have gone abroad this year,” he added.
Nadeem Sharif, a former chairman of the Travel Agents Association of Pakistan (TAAP), confirmed there was no police certificate requirement for UAE visit visas.
“There have been no such restrictions that those going to UAE on visit visas would require police clearance certificates. People have flown to the UAE yesterday and today [without them],” he told Arab News.
Addressing Monday’s Senate committee meeting as per a report published in Pakistan’s Geo News, Arshad Mahmood, the secretary of Overseas Pakistanis, said that while unskilled workers had faced delays in getting UAE visas, skilled laborers were receiving visas without problems.
Pakistan airstrikes target suspected TTP militant hideouts in Afghanistan
- Strikes carried out in mountainous area in Paktika province bordering Pakistan, training facility dismantled, insurgents killed
- Afghan Defense Ministry condemns airstrikes by Pakistan, saying they targeted civilians, including women and children
PESHAWAR: Pakistan in rare airstrikes targeted multiple suspected hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban inside neighboring Afghanistan on Tuesday, dismantling a training facility and killing some insurgents, four security officials said.
The strikes were carried out in a mountainous area in Paktika province bordering Pakistan, said the officials. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media on the record. It was unclear whether the jets went deep inside Afghanistan, and how the strikes were launched.
No spokesman for Pakistan’s military was immediately available to share further details. But it was the second such attack on alleged hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban since March, when Pakistan said intelligence-based strikes took place in the border regions inside Afghanistan.
In Kabul, the Afghan Defense Ministry condemned the airstrikes by Pakistan, saying the bombing targeted civilians, including women and children.
It said that most of the victims were refugees from the Waziristan region.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan considers this a brutal act against all international principles and blatant aggression and strongly condemns it,” the ministry said.
Local residents said at least eight people, including women and children, were killed in the airstrikes by Pakistan. They said the death toll from the strikes may rise.
In a post on the X platform, the Afghan defense ministry said the Pakistani side should know that such unilateral measures are not a solution to any problem.
“The Islamic Emirate will not leave this cowardly act unanswered but rather considers the defense of its territory and territory to be its inalienable right.”
The strikes came hours after Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s special representative for Afghanistan, traveled to Kabul to discuss a range of issues, including how to enhance bilateral trade, and improve ties.
Sadiq during the visit met with Sirajuddin Haqqani, Afghanistan’s acting interior minister, to offer his condolences over the Dec. 11 killing of his uncle Khalil Haqqani. He was the minister for refugees and repatriation who died in a suicide bombing that was claimed by a regional affiliate of the Daesh group.
Sadiq in a post on X said he also met with Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and he “held wide ranging discussions. Agreed to work together to further strengthen bilateral cooperation as well as for peace and progress in the region.”
A delegation of the pro-Taliban Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam also visited Kabul on Tuesday to convey condolences over the killing of Haqqani’s uncle.
Islamabad often claims that the Pakistani Taliban use Afghan soil to launch attacks in Pakistan, a charge Kabul has denied.
Syed Muhammad Ali, an Islamabad-based security expert, said Tuesday’s airstrike “represents a clear and blunt warning to Pakistani Taliban that Pakistan will use all the available means against the terrorist outfit both inside and outside its borders.” However, it is not an indiscriminate use of force and due care was taken by Pakistan in ensuring that only the terrorist bases were hit and no civilian loss of life and property took place, he said.
The Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 and the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has emboldened the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, whose leaders and fighters are hiding in Afghanistan.
The TTP has stepped up attacks on Pakistani soldiers and police since November 2022, when it unilaterally ended a ceasefire with the government after the failure of months of talks hosted by Afghanistan’s government in Kabul. The TTP in recent months has killed and wounded dozens of soldiers in attacks inside the country.
On founding father’s birthday, Christmas, PM reminds nation of vision of ‘inclusive Pakistan’
- Committed to safeguarding rights of minorities, Pakistani leaders say in Christmas messages
- Christianity is the third-largest religion in Pakistan, with over three million Christians
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday reaffirmed the government’s commitment to safeguarding the rights of all religious minorities as they wished the nation’s Christians on the occasion of Christmas, reminding citizens of founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s message of inclusivity and unity.
Prayer ceremonies were held in various cities across Pakistan on Christmas morning as participants gathered to pray for the safety, security, and prosperity of the nation. In the port city of Karachi, a central celebration was held at St. Patrick’s Church, while the eastern city of Lahore marked the celebration with a 100-pound cake, which was cut at St. Luke’s Church in Shahdara. Similar events took place in Islamabad, Bahawalpur, Quetta, Multan, Sargodha, and Lodhran, with churches organizing prayer gatherings under tight security.
Dec. 25 is also celebrated in Pakistan as the birth anniversay of Jinnah, a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan who served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the inception of Pakistan on Aug. 14, 1947. Jinnah was also Pakistan’s first governor-general until his death a year later.
“The government of Pakistan remains firmly committed to safeguarding the rights of all religious communities and fostering an environment of mutual respect and understanding,” Sharif said in his Christmas message to the nation.
“We will continue to ensure that people of all faiths can practice their beliefs freely and contribute to the collective progress of our nation.”
In a separate message, Sharif said founding father Jinnah had dreamed of a Pakistan” where every citizen could live with dignity, freedom, and equal opportunity, irrespective of faith or ethnicity.”
“His vision for Pakistan was one of inclusivity, unity, and prosperity,” the PM added.
In a statement released by his office, President Zardari said the constitution of Pakistan guaranteed the “fundamental rights of all citizens, irrespective of their faith,” adding that upholding the rights of all citizens was “essential for fostering national unity and progress.”
Christianity is the third-largest religion in Pakistan, with results from the 2023 census recording over three million Christians, or 1.3 percent of the total population in Pakistan. The majority of Christians in Pakistan are members of the Catholic Church or the Church of Pakistan.
Christians face institutionalized discrimination in Pakistan, including being targeted for blasphemy accusations, abduction, and forced conversions to Islam. Christians are also reserved for low-status jobs, such as working in sewers or on brick kilns.
Historical churches in Pakistan are monitored and have been targeted with bomb attacks on multiple occasions.
