Extreme temperatures compound poverty in Pakistan's hottest city

In this picture taken on May 11, 2022, a woman fills containers with water from a hand pump during a heatwave in Jacobabad, in the southern Sindh province. (AFP)
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Updated 16 May 2022
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Extreme temperatures compound poverty in Pakistan's hottest city

  • Jacobabad in the arid Sindh province is in the grip of latest heatwave to hit South Asia
  • Canals in Jacobabad have run dry, with temperatures peaking at 51 degrees Celsius

JACOBABAD: By the time Pakistani schoolboy Saeed Ali arrived at hospital in one of the world's hottest cities, his body was shutting down from heatstroke. 

The 12-year-old collapsed after walking home from school under the burning sun, his day spent sweltering in a classroom with no fans. 

"A rickshaw driver had to carry my son here. He couldn't even walk," the boy's mother Shaheela Jamali told AFP from his bedside. 




In this picture taken on May 11, 2022, 12-year-old schoolboy Saeed Ali suffering from heatstroke rest laying on a hospital bed in Jacobabad, in southern Sindh province.

Jacobabad in Pakistan's arid Sindh province is in the grip of the latest heatwave to hit South Asia – peaking at 51 degrees Celsius (124 Fahrenheit) at the weekend. 

Canals in the city -- a vital source of irrigation for nearby farms -- have run dry, with a smattering of stagnant water barely visible around strewn rubbish. 

Experts say the searing weather is in line with projections for global warming. 

The city is on the "front line of climate change", said its deputy commissioner Abdul Hafeez Siyal. "The overall quality of life here is suffering." 

Most of the one million people in Jacobabad and surrounding villages live in acute poverty, with water shortages and power cuts compromising their ability to beat the heat. 

It leaves residents facing desperate dilemmas. 

Doctors said Saeed was in a critical condition, but his mother -- driven by a desire to escape poverty -- said he would return to school next week. 

"We don't want them to grow up to be labourers," Jamali told AFP, her son listless and tearful at her side. 




 In this picture taken on May 11, 2022, a woman uses a paper sheet to fan her child amid a power cut during a heatwave in Jacobabad, in the southern Sindh province. (AFP)

Heatstroke -- when the body becomes so overheated it can no longer cool itself -- can cause symptoms from lightheadedness and nausea to organ swelling, unconsciousness, and even death. 

Nurse Bashir Ahmed, who treated Saeed at a new heatstroke clinic run by local NGO Community Development Foundation, said the number of patients arriving in a serious condition was rising. 

"Previously, the heat would be at its peak in June and July, but now it's arriving in May," Ahmed said. 

Labourers forced to toil in the sun are among the most vulnerable. 

Brick kiln workers ply their trade alongside furnaces that can reach up to 1,000 degrees Celsius. 

"The severe heat makes us feel like throwing up sometimes, but if I can't work, I can't earn," said Rasheed Rind, who started on the site as a child. 

Life in Jacobabad is dominated by attempts to cope with the heat. 

"It's like fire burning all around. What we need the most is electricity and water," said blacksmith Shafi Mohammad. 

Power shortages mean only six hours of electricity a day in rural areas and 12 in the city. 

Access to drinking water is unreliable and unaffordable due to scarcity across Pakistan and major infrastructure problems. 

Khairun Nissa gave birth during the heatwave, her last days of pregnancy spent wilting under a single ceiling fan shared between her family of 13. 

Her two-day-old son now occupies her spot under its feeble breeze. 

"Of course, I'm worried about him in this heat, but I know God will provide for us," said Nissa. 

Outside their three-room brick home, where the stench of rotting rubbish and stagnant water hangs in the air, a government-installed water tap runs dry. 

But local "water mafias" are filling the supply gap. 

They have tapped into government reserves to funnel water to their own distribution points where cans are filled and transported by donkey cart to be sold at 20 rupees (25 cents) per 20 litres. 

"If our water plants weren't here, there would be major difficulties for the people of Jacobabad," said Zafar Ullah Lashari, who operates an unlicensed, unregulated water supply. 

In a farming village on the outskirts of the city, women wake up at 3am to pump drinking water all day from a well -- but it is never enough. 

"We prefer our cattle to have clean drinking water first, because our livelihood depends on them," said Abdul Sattar, who raises buffaloes for milk and sale at market. 

There is no compromise on this, even when children suffer skin conditions and diarrhoea. 

"It is a difficult choice but if the cattle die, how would the children eat?" he said. 

Pakistan is the eighth most vulnerable country to extreme weather caused by climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index compiled by environmental NGO Germanwatch. 

Floods, droughts and cyclones in recent years have killed and displaced thousands, destroyed livelihoods and damaged infrastructure. 

Many people choose to leave Jacobabad in the hottest months, leaving some villages half empty. 

Sharaf Khatoon shares a makeshift camp in the city with up to 100 people surviving on a few meagre rupees that male family members earn through menial labour. 

They usually relocate the camp in the hottest months, 300 kilometres away to Quetta, where temperatures are up to 20 degrees Celsius cooler. 

But this year they will leave late, struggling to save the money for the journey. 

"We have headaches, unusual heartbeats, skin problems, but there is nothing we can do about it," said Khatoon. 

Professor Nausheen H. Anwar, who studies urban planning in hot cities, said authorities need to look beyond emergency responses and think long term. 

"Taking heatwaves seriously is important, but sustained chronic heat exposure is particularly critical," she said. 

"It's exacerbated in places like Jacobabad by the degradation of infrastructure and access to water and electricity which compromises people's capacity to cope." 

Along a dried-up canal filled with rubbish, hundreds of boys and a handful of girls in Jacobabad pour into a school for their end-of-year exams. 

They gather around a hand pump to gulp down water, exhausted even before the day begins. 

"The biggest issue we face is not having basic facilities -- that's why we experience more difficulties," said headteacher Rashid Ahmed Khalhoro. 

"We try to keep the children's morale high but the heat impacts their mental and physical health." 

With extreme temperatures arriving earlier in the year, he appealed to the government to bring forward summer vacations, which normally begin in June. 

A few classrooms have fans, though most do not. When the electricity is cut just an hour into the school day, everyone swelters in semi-darkness. 

Some rooms become so unbearable that children are moved into corridors, with youngsters frequently fainting. 

"We suffocate in the heat. We sweat profusely and our clothes get drenched," said 15-year-old Ali Raza. 

The boys told AFP they suffered from headaches and frequent diarrhoea but refused to skip lessons. 

Khalhoro said his students are determined to break out of poverty and find jobs where they can escape the heat. 

"They are prepared as though they are on a battlefield, with the motivation that they must achieve something." 


Pakistani journalist ‘abducted’ as Amnesty seeks probe into crackdown on Islamabad protest

Updated 4 sec ago
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Pakistani journalist ‘abducted’ as Amnesty seeks probe into crackdown on Islamabad protest

  • Matiullah Jan’s family says he was taken by unknown people in a vehicle from a hospital’s parking
  • Jan was covering the PTI protests and had criticized the authorities’ response to the demonstration

ISLAMABAD: A senior Pakistani journalist critical of the government’s handling of opposition protests was taken by unknown people late Wednesday, shortly after Amnesty International urged authorities to investigate reports of unlawful killings and mass detentions during a crackdown on an opposition demonstration in Islamabad.
Matiullah Jan, known for his outspoken reporting, was taken in an unmarked vehicle from the parking lot of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital, his family said in a statement on social media.
Jan was covering protests by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, and had criticized the authorities’ response to the demonstrations.
“Matiullah Jan has been abducted from the parking of PIMS tonight at around 11 by unmarked abductors in an unmarked vehicle alongside Saqib Bashir (who was let go 5 minutes later),” Jan’s son announced on his father’s social media account. “I demand that my father be let go immediately and his family immediately be informed of his whereabouts.”
The journalist’s abduction adds to growing concerns over press freedom and rights violations in Pakistan, especially in the wake of a crackdown on PTI supporters who had gathered to demand the release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan who has been behind bars for over a year.
In a statement earlier on Wednesday, Amnesty International condemned the use of force against protesters in the federal capital, where PTI claimed multiple deaths. The Pakistani authorities also confirmed the arrest of over 900 demonstrators in a span of three days.
“Yet again, protesters in Pakistan have faced a brutal and lethal crackdown shrouded in a callous opacity by the authorities,” Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, said in a statement. “The escalation of violence, shutdown of mobile Internet services, mass detentions, and alarming rhetoric against PTI protesters by the authorities speaks of a pattern of intolerance for the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.”
Amnesty highlighted reports of the use of lethal ammunition and restrictions on media coverage.
The rights body also called for a “prompt, thorough, impartial, effective, and transparent investigation into the deaths and injuries of protesters as well as the unlawful use of force by security personnel.”
Amnesty also demanded the release of all protesters, saying they were detained solely for exercising their right to peaceful assembly.
The government has yet not issued a statement about Jan’s disappearance, though Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif blamed PTI leaders and workers of trying to subvert the country’s economy, promising to “break the hand that wants to sacrifice Pakistan.”
The government has labeled the PTI protest as “unlawful,” citing a Pakistani court ruling that barred disruptions in the federal capital during the three-day visit of a Belarusian delegation, which coincided with the opposition’s demonstration.
 


Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi forcibly removed from Islamabad protest, claims her sister

Updated 29 min 46 sec ago
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Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi forcibly removed from Islamabad protest, claims her sister

  • Maryam Wattoo says Bibi was taken by KP administration, with her location concealed from family members
  • A senior PTI leader and close aide of ex-PM Khan dismisses Wattoo’s claims, says they should be ignored

ISLAMABAD: Bushra Bibi, the wife of Pakistan’s incarcerated former Prime Minister Imran Khan, was forcibly removed from a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) protest in Islamabad and her whereabouts are now unknown, her sister said during an interview with a local media network on Wednesday.

The protest, led by Bibi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, drew tens of thousands to Islamabad’s D-Chowk, located near the country’s parliament building and other government installation, demanding Khan’s release more than a year after his imprisonment.

Police and paramilitary Rangers cracked down on the demonstration on Tuesday night to disperse the crowd, as senior PTI leaders vanished from the venue despite announcing an indefinite sit-in in the capital and telling their party supporters they would not return without the ex-premier.

Initially, it was not clear where Bibi and Gandapur had gone, though media reported on Wednesday morning they had reached Mansehra district in KP and were going to address a news conference.

While Gandapur appeared on the media, calling the sit-in a movement and saying it would continue, Bibi did not give a public appearance.

“For several hours, we had no idea what was happening,” her sister, Maryam Riaz Wattoo, told ARY TV during an interview. “We were only being told that she had gone to KP. But I couldn’t believe that she would leave for KP so easily because I knew she was determined to stay there until it was do or die.”

Wattoo said she tried to contact her sister but no one was willing to put her through. 

“I got to talk to her through my own means very late in the day,” she said. “And I asked her to tell me clearly, ‘Did you leave with your own will?’ She said, ‘No. I never wanted to leave. I was ready to die there.’“

The sister maintained Bibi was taken by the KP administration, with her location concealed even from family members.

She also described the chaotic scenes as Bibi was removed, with gunfire in the background and her vehicle’s tire punctured.

“Bushra didn’t even know about the press conference,” she said, referring to the planned media interaction by Gandapur and her that was reported in the media. “She has been taken to an unknown location.”

Wattoo said that while she did not accuse Gandapur of ill intent, the lack of family communication was deeply concerning.

“I find it strange that even if they are moving her for security reasons, why is her family not informed about it,” she asked.

Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari, a senior PTI leader and close aide of ex-premier Khan, dismissed Maryam Riaz Wattoo’s claims as “not true,” adding that they should be ignored.

Pakistan’s Geo TV also aired CCTV footage purportedly showing Bibi in Islamabad, where she is seen stepping out of one vehicle and boarding another before leaving the federal capital.

The government has faced criticism for using excessive force while dispersing protesters, but the PTI leaders have also expressed disappointment over how the demonstration unfolded before reaching an abrupt conclusion.


Oxford vice chancellor bid, popularized in Pakistan by Imran Khan, ends with election of Lord Hague

Updated 28 November 2024
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Oxford vice chancellor bid, popularized in Pakistan by Imran Khan, ends with election of Lord Hague

  • Former British foreign secretary and ex-Conservative party leader William Hague elected chancellor 
  • Pakistan’s Khan, in jail since August 2023, had applied for chancellor election but was not shortlisted 

ISLAMABAD: Oxford University announced on Wednesday it had elected Lord William Hague, a former Conservative party leader and ex-British foreign secretary as its chancellor, months after rejecting former Pakistan premier Imran Khan’s bid for the post. 

Khan, who ruled Pakistan from 2018-2022, has been in prison since August 2023 on charges he says are politically motivated. His aide Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari said Khan filed his application for the chancellor’s role in September.

Oxford later released a shortlist of 38 candidates for the first round of the voting among its alumni. Khan’s name was not featured in the list. 

“Lord Hague will be formally inaugurated as Chancellor early in the New Year and serve for a term of 10 years,” Oxford University said in a report. “He becomes the 160th recorded Chancellor in the University’s history, a role that dates back at least 800 years.”

Hague was a leader of the Conservative Party from 1997-2001 and later served as Britain’s foreign secretary from 2010-2014. He also served as Secretary of State for Wales, Leader of the House of Commons and Minister for Disabled People, in which role he was the author of the Disability Discrimination Act. 

He spent 26 years as a member of parliament for Richmond, Yorkshire.

Hague graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1982, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He was president of the Oxford Union as well. 

“Thank you to my fellow Oxonians for placing such confidence in me,” Hague said. “I regard being elected as the Chancellor of our university as the greatest honor of my life.”

The chancellor is the titular head of Oxford University and presides over several key ceremonies. The chancellor also undertakes advocacy, advisory, and fundraising work, acting as an ambassador for the university at a range of local, national, and international events. 

Hague succeeds Lord Patten of Barnes, who announced his retirement from the post in February.


Pakistan’s KP to deploy law enforcers in Kurram as sectarian clashes kill 63

Updated 27 November 2024
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Pakistan’s KP to deploy law enforcers in Kurram as sectarian clashes kill 63

  • Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government says negotiations underway between warring Kurram tribes
  • Kurram, tribal district bordering Afghanistan, has a long history of violent, sectarian clashes


PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government announced on Wednesday that law enforcement personnel will be deployed in the restive Kurram district to maintain law and order, where sectarian clashes over the past three days have killed at least 63 and injured over 150. 
Kurram, a former semi-autonomous tribal area bordering Afghanistan, has a long history of violent conflicts that have claimed hundreds of lives over the years. A major conflict in the district, triggered in 2007, lasted for years before being resolved by a jirga, or a council of tribal elders, in 2011.
The recent violence in the restive district erupted earlier this month when gunmen attacked a convoy carrying members of the minority Shiite community in the Uchat area of Lower Kurram, killing 41 people. A 10-day ceasefire announced by the KP government failed to hold as clashes between warring tribes continue.
“The process of negotiations are underway to resolve the issue peacefully,” an official handout by the chief minister’s office said about a meeting held by the CM Ali Amin Gandapur on the issue on Wednesday. 
“To maintain peace, contingents of law enforcement personnel will be deployed at important places,” the statement added. 
Participants of the meeting, which also featured the KP chief secretary and other senior officials, were briefed that a damages assessment was being conducted to compensate victims of the clashes. 
KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur said the government’s top priority was ensuring lasting peace in the district. 
“The provincial government will utilize all available resources for this purpose,” he said. 
Participants were also told that standard operating procedures were being finalized to ensure the safe travel of people in the district. 
The recent clashes in Kurram mark one of the deadliest incidents in the region in recent years, following outbreaks of sectarian violence in July and September that killed dozens.
Several hundred people demonstrated against the Kurram violence last week in Pakistan’s two largest cities, Lahore and Karachi, reflecting nationwide concern over the situation.


Pakistan reports fresh polio case from country’s northwest, taking 2024 tally to 56

Updated 27 November 2024
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Pakistan reports fresh polio case from country’s northwest, taking 2024 tally to 56

  • Male child contracts polio in northwestern Dera Ismail Khan district, confirm authorities
  • Pakistan is one of only two countries worldwide where poliovirus still remains endemic 

PESHAWAR: Pakistan reported another polio case from the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province on Wednesday, taking this year’s tally of the disease to 56 cases as Islamabad struggles in its efforts to contain the infection. 

Pakistan, along with neighboring Afghanistan, remains the last polio-endemic country in the world. The nation’s polio eradication campaign has faced serious problems with a spike in reported cases this year that have prompted officials to review their approach to stopping the crippling disease.

The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH) confirmed the detection of the 56th wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) case of the year, saying that a male child in the northwestern district of Dera Ismail Khan had contracted the disease. 

“This is the seventh polio case of the year from D.I. Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern KP,” the polio program said. 

Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province and KP have reported the highest number of polio cases this year, 26 and 15, respectively, while 13 have been reported from Sindh and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

Poliovirus, which can cause crippling paralysis particularly in young children, is incurable and remains a threat to human health as long as it has not been eradicated. Immunization campaigns have succeeded in most countries and have come close in Pakistan, but persistent problems remain.

In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021.

Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners, who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies. Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams.