Saudi envoy, Balochistan governor discuss mobility, investment, regional ties
Saudi envoy, Balochistan governor discuss mobility, investment, regional ties/node/2610972/pakistan
Saudi envoy, Balochistan governor discuss mobility, investment, regional ties
Balochistan Governor Jaffar Khan Mandokhail speaks during a meeting with the Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan Nawaf bin Said Al-Malki at the Saudi Embassy in Islamabad on August 7, 2025. (Handout/Governor Office)
ISLAMABAD: Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan Nawaf bin Said Al-Malki has acknowledged efforts by the governor of Balochistan to facilitate direct travel from Quetta to the Kingdom following a meeting between the two officials to discuss mobility, investments and regional ties, the governor’s office said on Thursday.
The envoy’s meeting with Jaffar Khan Mandokhail, held in Islamabad, reflects a broader trend of Saudi engagement beyond Pakistan’s federal capital, with Balochistan, a resource-rich but underdeveloped province increasingly seen as strategically important in regional trade and energy corridors.
Both sides discussed “cordial relations between the two brotherly Islamic countries… regional economic and political developments and matters of mutual interest,” the statement from Mandokhail’s office said.
“Ambassador Nawaf bin Said Al-Malki appreciated Governor Mandokhail’s personal efforts in facilitating direct travel from Quetta to Ƶ for the people of Balochistan,” the governor’s office said in a statement.
While the statement did not elaborate on timelines or agreements regarding direct travel between Quetta and Ƶ, the ambassador’s reported remarks signal interest in easing mobility for religious pilgrims, workers and business travelers from the province, many of whom currently travel via Karachi or Islamabad.
The meeting also underscores growing recognition of Balochistan’s role in Pakistan’s future economic landscape, as well as Ƶ’s intent to broaden the scope of its bilateral engagement beyond federal corridors of power.
Mandokhail, for his part, reaffirmed the strength of bilateral ties. “History bears witness to Ƶ’s special support for Pakistan during every difficult time,” he said, according to the statement.
Ƶ remains one of Pakistan’s closest diplomatic and economic partners. In recent months, the Kingdom has reaffirmed its intention to invest in large-scale infrastructure, mining, and agricultural projects across Pakistan, including in Balochistan.
Saudi financial assistance has also been critical to Pakistan’s macroeconomic stability, particularly during periods of external financing stress.
Public urged to stay alert as monsoon rains persist in Punjab, other regions/node/2610968/pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Authorities in Pakistan on Thursday urged citizens to exercise caution as monsoon rains continued across the country, warning of more downpours in the coming 24 hours in Punjab and other parts of the country.
The ongoing rainfall comes amid a season of severe weather that has already caused widespread damage. Since June 26, at least 303 people have died in rain-related incidents nationwide, including 164 in the eastern Punjab province, according to disaster management officials.
“We request citizens to take precautionary measures during the monsoon season,” Irfan Ali Kathia, Director General of Punjab’s Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), said in a statement. “Keep children away from streams, low-lying areas, rivers and canals and strictly avoid swimming during rainfall.”
The PDMA said that the sixth spell of the monsoon system is expected to subside later on Thursday, but rain is still likely in most districts of the province.
It informed water levels in major rivers — including the Indus, Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi and Sutlej — remained at normal levels, and no immediate flood threat was reported.
In its latest fact sheet, PDMA reported 582 people injured, 216 homes damaged, and 121 livestock losses in the current season.
It also said financial assistance was being provided to affected families in various districts.
Meanwhile, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) issued a flash flood alert a day earlier for the Kashmir region and Gilgit-Baltistan, citing forecasts of intense rainfall in mountainous areas.
Vulnerable districts, including Neelum Valley, Skardu and Hunza, were asked to remain on high alert and identify evacuation routes in case of sudden water surges.
The NDMA urged residents to avoid crossing flooded roads and low bridges and recommended moving vehicles, livestock and valuables to safer ground.
Authorities said that emergency monitoring and coordination with provincial and district administrations were continuing to ensure a timely response to any worsening conditions.
KARACHI: Pakistan’s media community on Wednesday condemned a notice issued by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) to a local journalist, Muhammad Akbar Notezai, calling it a direct assault on press freedom.
According to reports, the notice stemmed from an investigative report Notezai published in Dawn newspaper more than a year earlier, probing allegations of administrative mismanagement, misuse of authority, and corruption in Balochistan.
Established last year in May, to replace the cyber‑crime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the NCCIA has drawn criticism for its expanding scope and its involvement in cases traditionally outside its mandate.
“Investigative journalism in Pakistan has witnessed a steady decline over the years, largely due to increasing censorship,” Fazil Jamili, President of Karachi Press Club, told Arab News. “In this environment, the work of journalists like Akbar Notakzai becomes all the more vital.”
Jamili said Notezai’s reporting consistently reflected rigorous research, professional integrity and the highest journalistic standards.
“It is deeply alarming that a journalist of his caliber is now being targeted by a state institution,” he added. “Such actions not only undermine press freedom but also discourage much-needed investigative reporting.”
Reacting to the development, veteran journalist Mazhar Abbas noted a newspaper report or article did not fall under the jurisdiction of the NCCIA.
“If someone had objections to the report, they could have issued a rebuttal or approached the court under relevant defamation laws,” he said. “In this context, the NCCIA should not have entertained the complaint at all.”
Abbas said the real purpose behind the action was to “pressure journalists and obstruct independent reporting.”
“Tactics like these are clearly aimed at curbing investigative journalism, so that government officials and institutions are not held accountable,” he added.
Meanwhile, Shahid Rind, a spokesperson for the Balochistan government, clarified via social media the provincial administration was not the complainant in the case, distancing it from the notice.
Based in Pakistan’s volatile southwestern Balochistan province, Notezai covers security, political, and social issues.
ISLAMABAD: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday said the recent standoff between India and Pakistan was rooted in the unresolved Kashmir dispute, urging the global community to press New Delhi for a “peaceful and expeditious” settlement to ensure regional stability.
The remarks came during an event marking the sixth anniversary of India’s 2019 decision to revoke the special constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir and integrate the Muslim-majority Himalayan region into the rest of the Indian union. The move triggered a sharp response from Pakistan, which downgraded diplomatic ties, a situation that remains unresolved. Both countries claim Kashmir in full but control only parts of it.
Speaking at the United Nations, OIC Permanent Observer Ambassador Hameed Opeloyeru linked the latest military escalation to the decades-old territorial conflict.
Earlier this year, India and Pakistan engaged in a brief but intense four-day exchange of drone strikes, missiles and artillery fire in May, following a gun attack on tourists in the Indian-administered town of Pahalgam. New Delhi blamed Islamabad for the attack, while Pakistan denied any involvement and demanded an independent probe.
“The OIC has continued to renew its call on the global community to lean on the Government of India to allow an expeditious but peaceful resolution of the Jammu Kashmir dispute, in line with the UN Charter and the basic principles of international law,” Opeloyeru said. “Without doubt, the people of Jammu Kashmir do enjoy the inalienable rights to self-determination as established under international law, including the UN Charter.”
“It is evident that the unresolved Kashmir dispute is the root cause of the recent hostilities in West Asia,” he added. “To this end, the OIC promptly expressed its concern on the Pahalgam attack on Azad Jammu and Kashmir on 22 April 2025 and later welcomed the ceasefire, which was established on 10 May 2025 and which continues to hold.”
The OIC also criticized India’s decision to suspend the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, a World Bank-brokered agreement governing river water distribution with Pakistan, in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack. Islamabad has already described such a move as “an act of war,” though the OIC has urged both sides to adhere to bilateral agreements and resume dialogue.
At the same event, the OIC reiterated its rejection of India’s 2019 revocation of Kashmir’s special status and what it described as efforts to alter the region’s demography. The group reaffirmed its support for the Kashmiri people’s “legitimate struggle” for self-determination, citing resolutions adopted at its ministerial session in Istanbul in June 2025.
ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan Army major was among three soldiers killed when their vehicle was targeted by an improvised explosive device in Balochistan’s Mastung district, the military said late Wednesday night, adding that security forces later killed four militants in a retaliatory operation.
Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is strategically important due to its mineral wealth and its role as a transit hub for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
However, the province has long been gripped by a separatist insurgency, with groups such as the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) ramping up attacks in recent years. Islamabad calls these outfits proxies of Indian intelligence, branding them “Fitna-e-Hindustan,” India’s mischief, though the charge is denied by New Delhi.
“On night 5/6 August 2025, terrorists belonging to Indian proxy Fitna al Hindustan, targeted a Security Forces’ vehicle with an improvised explosive device in Mastung District,” the Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
This handout photo, released on August 6, 2025 shows three Pakistan army soldiers killed in Balochistan blast. (Handout/ISPR)
“Resultantly, three brave sons of soil; Maj Muhammad Rizwan Tahir (31, Narowal), Naik Ibni Amin (37, Swabi), and Lance Naik Muhammad Younas (33, Karak), paid the ultimate sacrifice and embraced shahadat [martyrdom].”
The army said Major Tahir was a decorated officer who had led numerous counterterrorism missions from the front. A subsequent “sanitization operation” in the area led to the killing of four “Indian-sponsored terrorists,” the statement added.
The military said its operation in the area was still continuing, vowing to eliminate all threats.
“Such sacrifices further strengthen our resolve to wipe out the menace of Indian-sponsored terrorism from the country,” the ISPR added.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack in a statement, paid tribute to the fallen soldiers, and lauded the military’s swift response.
“Security forces are standing like a wall in defense of the nation,” he said, adding the country remains committed to eradicating militancy and extremism in all its forms.
Balochistan has seen a string of high-profile militant attacks this year. In March, the BLA hijacked a passenger train, and in May, a suicide bombing in Khuzdar killed several children after targeting their school bus.
Security forces, civilians and non-local workers are frequently targeted in coordinated attacks across the province.
Pakistan’s deadly monsoon floods were worsened by global warming, study finds
Scientists warn 2050 climate projections are already unfolding in 2025 amid rising temperatures
Study says half of Pakistan’s urban poor live in flood-prone, fragile housing, leading to greater losses
Updated 07 August 2025
AP
ISLAMABAD: Heavy rainfall that triggered floods in Pakistan in recent weeks, killing hundreds of people, was worsened by human-caused climate change, according to a new study.
The study by World Weather Attribution, a group of international scientists who study global warming’s role in extreme weather, found that rainfall from June 24 to July 23 in the South Asian nation was 10% to 15% heavier because of climate change, leading to many building collapses in urban and rural Pakistan.
Pakistan’s government has reported at least 300 deaths and 1,600 damaged houses due to the floods, heavy rain and other weather since June 26.
Saqib Hassan, a 50-year-old businessman in northern Pakistan, said flooding on July 22 destroyed his home and 18 of his relatives’ homes, along with their dairy farms. His farm animals were washed away, resulting in heavy losses — likely 100 million rupees ($360,000) — for him and his family.
Businessman Saqib Hassan gestures toward debris of his family homes, which were damaged by July 22 floods, at the bank of Hunza River in Sarwarabad, a town in the northern Pakistan on August 6, 2025. (AP)
Last-minute announcements from a nearby mosque were the only warning they got to evacuate their homes in the small town of Sarwarabad and get to higher ground.
“We are homeless now. Our houses have been destroyed. All the government has given us is food rations worth 50,000 rupees ($177) and seven tents, where we’ve been living for the past two weeks,” Hassan told The Associated Press over the phone.
HEAVY RAINS CAUSE SERIES OF DISASTERS
High temperatures and intense precipitation worsened by global warming have accelerated the pace of recent extreme weather events faster than climate experts expected, said Islamabad-based climate scientist Jakob Steiner, who was not part of the WWA study.
“In the last few weeks, we have been scrambling to look at the number of events, not just in Pakistan, but in the South Asian region that have baffled us,” he said.
“Many events we projected to happen in 2050 have happened in 2025, as temperatures this summer, yet again, have been far above the average,” said Steiner, a geoscientist with the University of Graz, Austria, who studies water resources and associated risks in mountain regions.
Heavy monsoon rains have resulted in a series of disasters that have battered South Asia, especially the Himalayan mountains, which span across five countries, in the last few months.
Local residents collect useful items through the rubble of their houses, which were damaged by July 22 floods, at the bank of Hunza River in Sarwarabad, a town in the northern Pakistan on August 6, 2025. (AP)
Overflowing glacial lakes resulted in flooding that washed away a key bridge connecting Nepal and China, along with several hydropower dams in July. Earlier this week, a village in northern India was hit by floods and landslides, killing at least four people and leaving hundreds missing.
The authors of the WWA study, which was released early Thursday, said that the rainfall they analyzed in Pakistan shows that climate change is making floods more dangerous. Climate scientists have found that a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, which can make rain more intense.
“Every tenth of a degree of warming will lead to heavier monsoon rainfall, highlighting why a rapid transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is so urgent,” said Mariam Zachariah, a researcher at the Center for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London and lead author of the WWA study.
EXTREME WEATHER’S IMPACT ON PAKISTAN
Even though Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of planet-heating gases in the atmosphere, research shows that it incurs an outsized amount of damage from extreme weather. Pakistan witnessed its most devastating monsoon season in 2022, with floods that killed more than 1,700 people and caused an estimated $40 billion in damage.
According to the United Nations, global funds set up to deal with loss and damages because of climate change or funds set up to adapt to climate change are falling well short of the amounts needed to help countries like Pakistan deal with climate impacts. The UN warns that its loss and damage fund only holds a fraction of what’s needed to address yearly economic damage related to human-caused climate change.
Similarly, UN reports state that developed countries such as the United States and European nations, which are responsible for the largest chunk of planet-heating gases in the atmosphere, are providing far less than what’s needed in adaptation financing.
Motorists drive through a flooded road caused by heavy monsoon rain in Lahore, Pakistan on July 23, 2025. (AP/File)
These funds could help improve housing and infrastructure in areas vulnerable to flooding.
The WWA report says much of Pakistan’s fast-growing urban population lives in makeshift homes, often in flood-prone areas. The collapsing of homes was the leading cause of the 300 deaths cited in the report, responsible for more than half.
“Half of Pakistan’s urban population lives in fragile settlements where floods collapse homes and cost lives,” said Maja Vahlberg of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center, who also helped author the WWA report, in a press statement. “Building flood-resilient houses and avoiding construction in flood zones will help reduce the impacts of heavy monsoon rain.”
