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KASUR: When floodwaters from across the Indian border surged into her village in eastern Pakistan this month, Shama knew what to do: gather her four children and prepare to leave. It was the second time this year she had to flee, after abandoning her home during cross-border fighting between India and Pakistan in May.

“How many times do we need to evacuate now?” the 30-year-old mother said, her husband away ferrying their 10 cows to higher ground on a boat. “We lost out on so much during the war like school days for the children, and now the water is forcing us out again. Trouble is trouble.”

Shama’s ordeal is echoed across flood-hit Kasur, where families say they are exhausted by repeated displacements within months, first from the fighting, now from nature.

“The floods started earlier this month and only got worse,” said 27-year-old mother Bibi Zubaida, who lives with seven relatives in a three-bedroom house opposite a mosque that now broadcasts evacuation calls.

From the mosque loudspeakers, usually reserved for the call to prayer, came a different message: boats were ready for anyone who wanted to leave.

“When you live here, you choose to live with the threat of war and the threat of floods. Where does one go?” Zubaida said.

Kasur lies just a few kilometers from the Indian border. From their rooftops and rescue boats, residents said they could see Indian checkposts across the horizon, a reminder of how closely their fate is tied to decisions made on the other side. The nations share rivers that were regulated for more than six decades under the Indus Waters Treaty. That agreement was suspended by India earlier this year, following the shooting of 26 people by militants that New Delhi said were backed by Islamabad, which Pakistan denies.

That attack triggered brief but intense cross-border battles between the nuclear-armed neighbors, driving villagers like Shama from their homes. Then came the monsoon, and the rivers turned to flood.

On narrow wooden boats, families balanced motorcycles, belongings, and bleating goats alongside their children, as rescue workers steered them through fields now turned into rivers.

Rescue worker Muhammad Arsalan said many villagers hesitated to evacuate.

“People don’t always want to leave because they’re scared of thieves stealing what they’re leaving behind. They’re reluctant because they’ve done it so many times already,” said Arsalan, who has ferried more than 1,500 people to safety by boat in recent days.

“They love their goats and sheep, and sometimes refuse to leave without them,” he added, pausing to clear leaves stuck in the motor before restarting another run.

The Punjab provincial disaster management authority said flows in the Sutlej River at Ganda Singh Wala were the highest in decades, after a breach at an Indian barrage. At least 28 deaths have been reported so far, with water pushing further south through Punjab and threatening new areas.

In India, cloud bursts in Ramban and Mahore regions of Jammu and Kashmir killed 10 people. Pakistani officials said the crisis was worsened by India’s decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty, halting the decades-old exchange of river data. Islamabad also accused India of releasing large volumes of water without adequate warning.

“If the treaty was in operation, we could have managed the impact better,” Pakistan’s Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal told Reuters on Friday.

India has denied deliberately flooding Pakistan. It has blamed incessant monsoon rains and said it issued multiple flood alerts. Two gates of the Madhopur barrage on the Ravi River were damaged by surging water, Indian officials said.

Farmers say the deluge has wrecked their livelihoods. “Thirteen of my 15 acres (6 hectares) are gone,” said Muhammad Amjad, a rice and vegetable grower. “Women and children are mainly evacuated. Men stay behind to guard what’s left.”

The back-to-back displacements have underscored the vulnerability of communities straddling Pakistan’s volatile eastern border.

Officials warn the crisis could worsen as climate change intensifies monsoons and cross-border river disputes strain disaster planning.

“I’ve seen many floods, but they are coming too often now,” said Nawabuddin, a 74-year-old landowner, recalling the most memorable floods he witnessed in his lifetime — 1988, 2023 and now this one. “We don’t want war, we don’t want excess water. We just want to live,” said Zubaida, whose newly renovated home and farmland now lie underwater.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is due to arrive in China on Saturday for a six-day visit to attend a regional summit and hold meetings with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang, with political, economic and investment ties topping the agenda.

Sharif’s visit, from Aug. 30 till Sept. 4, underscores the strong and multifaceted partnership between the two countries, which spans defense, diplomacy and economic cooperation.

China has long been Pakistan’s largest investor and its closest strategic ally, anchored by the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Both sides are working to advance into “CPEC 2.0,” focused on industrialization, agriculture, energy and connectivity.

“Departing on a historic visit to China! Will participate in the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) Council of Heads of State Meeting in Tianjin,” Sharif said on X on Saturday morning. “I look forward to meeting H.E. President Xi Jinping and other world leaders to further build upon our bilateral ties with China.”

China has long sought to present the SCO as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs and has pushed for greater collaboration between its 10 members.

More than 20 foreign leaders including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the regional security bloc’s largest meeting since it was founded, China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Bin said Friday. Top politicians from member states or guest countries such as Belarus, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Turkiye and Vietnam are also among those taking part.

Pakistan’s foreign office earlier said that Sharif’s meetings with President Xi and Premier Li will focus on multifaceted dimensions of Pakistan-China bilateral cooperation.

“He would also attend the military parade with President Xi and other world leaders being held in Beijing to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the World’s Anti-Fascist War,” it said, using a term widely employed in China to describe World War II.

Sharif would also interact with Chinese business leaders and corporate executives to discuss trade and investment and address a Pakistan-China Business-to-Business (B2B) Investment Conference in Beijing, according to the foreign office. Sharif’s engagements are part of leadership-level exchanges that both governments describe as vital to maintaining their “all-weather strategic cooperative partnership.”

The foreign office said the visit will reaffirm support on core interests, strengthen bilateral cooperation and ensure regular consultations on regional and global developments.

Sharif also visited China in June 2024, when he held talks with Xi and Li in Beijing, toured cultural and educational sites in Xi’an, and announced that 1,000 Pakistani students would receive agricultural training in China.

That five-day trip included meetings with leading Chinese companies in the energy and technology sectors, as the government strives to encourage foreign investors to explore manufacturing and other opportunities in Pakistan.