At least 144 people died due to the heavy rainfall in April.
Pakistan has experienced its “wettest April since 1961”, receiving more than twice as much rain as usual for the month, the country’s weather agency has said.
April rainfall was recorded at 59.3mm (2.3 inches), “excessively above” the normal average of 22.5mm (0.9 inches), the metrology department said in its monthly climate report released late on Friday.
The highest rainfall was recorded in the southwestern province of Balochistan with 437 percent more than average.
At least 144 people also died in the thunderstorms and house collapses due to heavy rains in April.
The largest death toll was reported in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where 84 people died, including 38 children, and more than 3,500 homes were damaged.
While much of Asia is sweltering due to heatwaves, Pakistan’s national monthly temperature for April was 23.67 degrees Celsius (74.6 degrees Fahrenheit), 0.87C lower than the average of 24.54C, the report added.
“Climate change is a major factor that is influencing the erratic weather patterns in our region,” Zaheer Ahmad Babar, spokesman for the Pakistan Meteorological Department, said of the report.
In 2022, downpours swelled rivers and at one point flooded a third of Pakistan, killing 1,739 people. The floods caused $30bn in damages, from which Pakistan is still trying to rebuild. Balochistan saw rainfall at 590 percent above average that year, while Karachi saw 726 percent more rainfall than usual.
“The flash floods caused extensive damage to vast area of crops, particularly the wheat crop, which was ready for harvest,” the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said in a recent report.
“This has resulted in significant economic losses for local farmers and communities, compounding the losses from the rain-related incidents,” it said.
Meanwhile, parts of Pakistan have also been hit by heatwaves and severe air pollution, which experts say are exacerbated by inadequate infrastructure and ineffective governance.
“We are witnessing climate change-related incidents nearly every year now. Yet we are not prepared for it,” environment lawyer and activist Ahmad Rafay Alam told the AFP news agency.
“It is the responsibility of our provincial and federal governments to prioritise climate relief and mitigation measures. However, their focus appears to be primarily on political matters,” Alam added.
Islamabad, Pakistan – Tens of thousands of farmers in Pakistan are holding protests in several cities over the government’s decision not to buy their wheat, causing them huge losses in income.
The farmers in Punjab, the country’s largest province and often called the “bread basket” of Pakistan, are demanding that the government stop wheat imports that have flooded the market at a time when they expect bumper crops.
At a protest in Lahore, the provincial capital, on Monday, police violently pushed back the farmers with batons and arrested dozens of them.
Here is what we know about the issue so far:
What triggered the protests?
The farmers are furious about the import of wheat in the second half of last year and the first three months of this year, resulting in an excess of wheat in the market and reducing prices.
Agriculture is one of the most significant income sectors in Pakistan, making up nearly 23 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country. Wheat makes up 2 percent of the whole.
Following devastating floods in Pakistan in 2022, the impact on wheat farming caused a shortage of wheat in early 2023. While Pakistan consumes around 30 million tonnes of wheat per year, only 26.2 million tonnes were produced in 2022, pushing up prices and resulting in long queues of people in cities trying to buy wheat. There were even instances of people being crushed in crowds trying to access wheat.
The farmers accuse recent wheat import policies of causing their financial woes [Bilawal Arbab/EPA]
The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the ruling coalition at the time, decided to allow the private sector to import wheat in July 2023, just a month before the end of its tenure in government.
According to figures from the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, between September 2023 and March 2024, more than 3.5 million tonnes of wheat were imported into Pakistan from the international market, where prices were much lower.
As a result of the excess, at the beginning of April this year, when Pakistan’s farmers started harvesting their wheat, the country’s national and provincial food storage department was holding more than 4.3 million tonnes of wheat in its stocks.
Usually, the government purchases around 20 percent of all the wheat produced by local farmers at a fixed price (about 5.6 million tonnes, based on a 2023 yield of 28 million tonnes). This intervention in the market, it says, ensures price stability, prevents hoarding and maintains the supply chain. This year, however, it has announced that it will purchase only 2 million tonnes of wheat from Pakistani farmers.
If farmers produce as much wheat this year as they did last year – and in fact, they expect to produce more – that represents around only 7 percent of total produce, leaving farmers out of pocket, they say.
Khalid Mehmood Khokhar, president of the farmers’ organisation Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) and a farmer from the city of Multan in Punjab, said that also allowing private importers to bring unlimited wheat into the country last year means that farmers will now have to sell what they can to other sources at much-reduced prices – and they will suffer great losses.
“With a bumper crop, we are expected to grow nearly 32 million metric tonnes of wheat this year, but with the government’s coffers already full of wheat, we will be able to sell not more than 50 percent of our crop. This could result in losses of nearly 380 billion rupees ($1.4bn),” Khokhar told Al Jazeera.
Why does it matter how much wheat the government buys?
According to Adil Mansoor, a Karachi-based food security analyst and researcher, the government’s purchase of domestic wheat each year helps to set the price at which the rest of the farmers’ wheat is sold to flour millers and others in the market.
“When everybody knows that the single largest buyer [the government] will purchase the wheat at a certain price, it means that the rest of the market functions accordingly as the government has set a reference price, and sells goods on that price,” he explained.
What do the farmers say?
Ishfaq Jatt, a wheat and cotton farmer who owns 4.8 hectares (12 acres) of land in Khanewal, Punjab, said the production cost for wheat has risen sharply due to the high price of fertiliser, water and other requirements for growing wheat.
“Now we farmers also have to sell the wheat to middlemen at a much-reduced rate, incurring losses for us,” Jatt told Al Jazeera. “I have a small farm. I do not have any space to store the wheat I have grown. What will I do with it? And if I don’t earn from my harvest, how can I sow my next crops?”
He added that many farmers may opt to avoid planting wheat in future years if they feel they “cannot trust the government anymore”.
What does the government say?
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered an investigation into the wheat crisis.
Bilal Yasin, provincial food minister for Punjab, told the provincial assembly earlier this week that the crisis had been caused by decisions made by the caretaker government that took over in August last year after the tenure of the previous elected government came to an end. Elections, which should have been held within three months, were delayed by the need to redraw constituencies following the latest census. They were eventually held in February this year.
“Those people who allowed the import of the wheat close to wheat harvest season are responsible for this crisis. However, despite this, the government will fully support the small farmers,” the minister said.
Al Jazeera reached out to the food minister for further comment, but did not receive a response.
How will consumers be affected?
Mansoor said the government’s decision not to buy the excess wheat this year “reeks of poor planning and management”, but he pointed out that it will ultimately benefit consumers who have been hard hit by the cost-of-living crisis, as the price of wheat will fall.
“Farmers are naturally going to be very upset, with some incurring massive losses. But if consumers are getting benefit, is it a bad situation?” Mansoor asked.
Pakistan has been hit by skyrocketing prices over the past two years. At its high, inflation stood at nearly 38 percent in May 2023.
However, government action to tackle inflation – along with loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – have brought relative stability, with inflation dropping to 17 percent in April, its lowest in more than two years.
Mansoor also welcomed the government’s effective retreat from interfering in the market.
“The government should have communicated better to farmers about their plan of not purchasing wheat from them. But in the long term, it is a good thing that the government exits from the market,” he said. “This cannot be done overnight, but gradually, it should phase out its involvement in coming years.”
Workers and activists have taken to the streets across Asia as the world marks May Day.
Rallies took place in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines, among other countries, on Wednesday. The marchers protested rising prices and demanded greater labour rights.
Workers’ rights are celebrated on May Day across the globe, with events used to air general economic grievances and political demands.
In the South Korean capital Seoul, thousands of protesters sang, waved flags and shouted pro-labour slogans before marching through the centre. Organisers said the rally was primarily meant to step up criticism of what they call anti-labour policies pursued by the conservative government led by President Yoon Suk Yeol.
“In the past two years under the Yoon Suk Yeol government, the lives of our labourers have plunged into despair,” Yang Kyung-soo, leader of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions said in a speech. “We can’t overlook the Yoon Suk Yeol government. We’ll bring them down from power for ourselves.”
Similar rallies were held in several other cities across South Korea. Police mobilised thousands of officers to maintain order, but there were no immediate reports of violence.
In Japan, more than 10,000 people gathered in downtown Tokyo to demand salary increases sufficient to offset price increases. Masako Obata, leader of the National Confederation of Trade Unions, said that dwindling wages have put many workers in Japan under severe living conditions and widened income disparities.
“On this May Day, we unite with our fellow workers around the world standing up for their rights,” she said, shouting “banzai!” or long life, to all workers.
In Taiwan, more than 1,000 representatives from more than 100 workers’ unions took to the streets in downtown Taipei demanding worker rights laws be amended.
Waving banners and shouting slogans, demonstrators marched for hours in the capital calling for the law to be revised to include higher wages, better working conditions and pension packages.
“Prices have been soaring, but wages have not,” Said Chiang Chien-hsing, head of the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions.
In the Philippine capital Manila, hundreds of workers and activists marched in the scorching summer heat to demand wage increases and job security amid soaring food and oil prices.
Riot police stopped the protesting workers from getting close to the presidential palace. Waving red flags and holding up posters that read: “We work to live, not to die” and “Lower prices, increase salaries,” the protesters chanted and listened to speeches about the difficulties faced by Filipino labourers.
Drivers of jeepneys, the city’s main mode of public transport, joined the rally as they ended a three-day strike. The operators of the highly decorated vehicles fear that a government modernisation programme could see their often ramshackle vehicles removed from the capital’s streets.
The dramatic surroundings of Hingol National Park in Balochistan province are the setting for Pakistan’s largest Hindu celebration, Hinglaj Yatra, which started on Friday and ends on Sunday.
Muslim-majority Pakistan is home to 4.4 million Hindus, just 2.14 percent of the population, and the ancient cave temple of Hinglaj Mata is one of the few Hindu sites in the country that continues to draw large numbers of pilgrims every year.
The journeys begin hundreds of kilometres away, mostly from neighbouring Sindh province. Hundreds of packed buses set off from cities like Hyderabad and Karachi, travelling along the Makran Coastal Highway that hugs Pakistan’s south and southwest.
But there is scant parking and vehicular access to the holy sites, so many pilgrims disembark and complete their travel by walking over parched and rocky terrain, sometimes barefoot and carrying children or luggage.
It’s a few kilometres from the main road to the mud volcano and then, from there, almost 45km (28 miles) to Hinglaj Mata.
Kanwal Kumar, 28, was visiting the temple for the first time with her husband. “We have yet to conceive a child after six years of marriage, so we are hopeful for help from the goddess,” she said. “We believe that no one returns empty-handed. All wishes are granted by Hinglaj Mata.”
While there is no ban on Hindu worship in Pakistan, openly practising the faith is not routine, as ties between Pakistan and Hindu-majority India are riddled with animosity and suspicion.
Versimal Divani, the general-secretary of Hinglaj Mata, lamented that only Hindus in Pakistan can attend the festival.
“We can visit this temple in our beloved country whenever our heart desires,” said Divani.
“But this is not the case for the rest of the world’s Hindus. I would like the Pakistani government to issue them visas so they can come here and take blessings with them. It’s good for people-to-people contact and it’s good for the economy, too.”
Activists in Pakistan called out the German ambassador’s alleged hypocrisy for speaking at a human rights forum while Germany stifles criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza. The pro-Palestinian demonstrators were quickly removed from the Asma Jahangir Conference by authorities.
Islamabad, Pakistan – The United States has warned Pakistan of the risk of sanctions after it promised greater security and economic cooperation with Iran during a visit by President Ebrahim Raisi.
The first Iranian president to visit the South Asian country in eight years, Raisi concluded his three-day trip on Wednesday as the neighbouring countries said they would increase bilateral trade to $10bn a year over the next five years, from the current $2bn.
Pakistan’s foreign office said the two sides additionally agreed to cooperate in the energy sector including trade in electricity, power transmission lines and the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project.
The gas pipeline project has languished for more than a decade because of political turmoil and international sanctions.
The US Department of State on Tuesday cautioned the Pakistani government of engaging in business deals with Iran.
“We advise anyone considering business deals with Iran to be aware of the potential risk of sanctions. But ultimately, the government of Pakistan can speak to their own foreign policy pursuits,” spokesperson Vedant Patel said during a news briefing.
Foreign policy expert Muhammad Faisal said the United States threats of sanctions are merely meant to dissuade Pakistan and “increase the cost of doing business with Iran”.
“Any expansion of formal trade and banking activity between the two nations will be slow, as Pakistani banks are reluctant to do direct business with Iranian banks,” he told Al Jazeera.
A wide-ranging list of business-related activities with Iran can trigger US sanctions, and the regulations also bar business dealings with Iranian financial institutions.
The pipeline was to stretch more than 1,900km (1,180 miles) from Iran’s South Pars gas field to Pakistan to meet Pakistan’s rising energy needs.
Iran said it has already invested $2bn to construct the pipeline on its side of the border, making it ready to export. However, the project is yet to take off from the Pakistani side due to fears of US sanctions.
Pakistan indicated last month that it will try and seek a waiver from the US to construct the pipeline on its territory.
Washington’s efforts to restrict Iran’s income from oil and petroleum products go back decades. It has additionally sanctioned hundreds of entities and people in Iran – from the central bank to government officials – accused of materially supporting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and armed groups such as Palestine’s Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis.
The US and the United Kingdom this month imposed a new round of sanctions on Iran after its unprecedented attack on Israel, but the punitive measures were limited in scope and there have been questions over how effective the sanctions regime has been overall.
“Islamabad is cognisant of these constraints and both sides have been exploring ‘out-of-the-box’ solutions for expanding bilateral trade through barter system and border markets with the involvement of local chambers of commerce,” Faisal said.
Pakistan has little leverage
During his visit, Raisi met the country’s top leadership, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief General Asim Munir.
The visit came as the two countries try to repair their frayed relationship following heightened tensions in January when Iran launched attacks on Pakistani territory on what it said were bases of armed group Jaish al-Adl.
In less than 48 hours, the Pakistani military carried out strikes in Iran on what it said were “hideouts used by terrorist organisations”.
Yet, the implied threat of sanctions comes at a challenging time for Pakistan, which is mired in economic woes and is seeking financial help from its allies, including key partners such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the US, three countries that are considered rivals of Iran.
Sharif was in Saudi Arabia this month to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and is expected to travel to the kingdom again next week.
Kamran Bokhari, a senior director at the Washington, DC-based New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, said Pakistan cannot afford to get caught in the middle of a conflict between the US and Iran.
“Those two countries are engaged in their own rivalry and Iran sees itself in ascendancy at the moment due to situation in the Middle East,” Bokhari told Al Jazeera, referring to Israel’s war on Gaza.
“The US wants to contain Iran and the tools it has are sanctions. Now Pakistan needs the US and Western goodwill to help it deal with its economic crisis,” he said, adding that it should “steer clear of any move that risks it”.
Pakistan must identify what’s best for its national interest if it is to successfully juggle its relationships with Iran and the US and “maintain engagement with both”, Faisal said, but it should focus on expanding trade and energy cooperation with Iran.
The future of the Pakistan-Iran relationship depends on Pakistan’s ability to use its limited leverage, said Bokhari.
“If the US tells Pakistan ‘You cannot do business with Iran’, then they should ask Washington ‘Could you instead help us in what we need?’” Bokhari said.
Police said three people were wounded in port city of Karachi but bomber and accomplice died.
A suicide bomber has detonated his explosive-laden vest near a van carrying Japanese autoworkers in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi, police said, injuring three bystanders.
The van was heading to an industrial area where the five Japanese nationals work at Pakistan Suzuki Motors, according to local police chief Arshad Awan.
The Japanese nationals escaped unhurt on Friday, Aswan said, adding that the three people wounded were in stable condition in hospital.
Two security guards were travelling in the bullet-proof van after receiving reports about possible attacks on foreigners working in Pakistan on various Chinese-funded and other projects.
Police said a suicide bomber on a motorcycle set off his vest, while another assailant was shot dead by police patrolling the area.
Tariq Mastoi, a senior police officer, said the quick police response foiled the attack.
Investigators examine a damaged van at the site of a suicide attack in Karachi, Pakistan, on April 19, 2024 [Fareed Khan/AP Photo]
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the assault in Karachi, the country’s largest city and the capital of the southern province of Sindh.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the attack on the Japanese workers.
Armed groups have in the past targeted Chinese nationals working in Pakistan on projects relating to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). China is one of Pakistan’s closest allies and has invested $62bn in the CPEC infrastructure project that spans a series of highways linking southwestern China to Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea.
In March, five Chinese and their Pakistani driver were killed when a suicide attacker rammed his explosive-laden car into their convoy near Besham city in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They were on their way from Islamabad to Dasu, the site of a hydroelectric dam being constructed by a Chinese company, about 270km (167 miles) from the capital.
At least 50 people have been killed in heavy rains and lightning across Pakistan in the past three days, officials said, as authorities declared a state of emergency in some regions.
Farmers harvesting wheat died after being struck by lightning. Rains caused dozens of houses to collapse in the northwest and in eastern Punjab province.
Arfan Kathia, a spokesman for the provincial disaster management authority, said 21 people had died in Punjab, where more rains were expected this week.
Khursheed Anwar, a spokesman for the disaster management authority in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, said 21 people died there.
Torrential rains also lashed the capital, Islamabad, and killed seven people in southwestern Baluchistan province. Streets flooded in the northwestern city of Peshawar and Quetta, the Baluchistan capital.
Rafay Alam, a Pakistani environmental expert, said such heavy rainfall in April was unusual.
“Two years ago, Pakistan witnessed a heatwave in March and April and now we are witnessing rains and it is all of because of climate change, which had caused heavy flooding in 2022,” he said.
In 2022, downpours swelled rivers and at one point inundated one-third of Pakistan, killing 1,739 people. The floods also caused $30bn in damage.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks which took place on the Quetta-Taftan Highway.
Gunmen have killed 11 people in two separate attacks in the Balochistan province in southwestern Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and Iran, officials have said.
Police on Saturday were searching for the assailants who killed nine people after abducting them from a bus on a highway on Friday. The same attackers also killed two people in another car they forced to stop.
Deputy Commissioner Habibullah Musakhel said the armed men had set up a blockade, then stopped the bus and went through the passengers’ ID cards. They took nine people with them, all from the eastern Punjab province, and fled into the mountains. Police later recovered nine bodies under a bridge about five kilometres (three miles) from the highway.
The attack took place on the Quetta-Taftan Highway N-40 in the vicinity of Sultan Charhai near Noshki, and 10 to 12 armed men were involved, Musakhel also told Pakistan daily, Dawn.
Earlier on Friday, the same gunmen had opened fire on a vehicle that tried to stop for their blockade, killing two and wounding six. A search for the perpetrators was under way, Musakhel said.
Passenger Sajjad Ahmed said there were 70 people on the bus. Masked men stopped the bus near the city of Nushki, took away nine people and told the driver to continue the journey, he told The Associated Press.
“We heard the armed men open fire on those people as we drove away,” he said. “We heard the sounds of firing. The driver took the bus to the closest police station. We didn’t know if those people were alive or not.”
Witness Zahid Imran, 46, told the AFP news agency that when the attackers boarded the bus they berated the abducted travellers, saying, “You Punjabis kill our children, get up and come with us.”
‘Incident of terrorism’
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack, expressing his “deep sorrow and regret over this shocking incident”.
He offered his condolences to the families of the victims and said he stood by them in their hour of grief, according to a statement from his office.
“The perpetrators of this incident of terrorism and their facilitators will be punished,” Sharif said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack which occurred about 8:00pm (15:00 GMT) on Friday.
Abductions are rare in Balochistan, where armed groups usually target police forces and soldiers or infrastructure.
Separatist ethnic Baloch groups in the mineral-rich region have been fighting for decades against the state, saying it denies them their share of regional resources.
Punjabis are the largest ethnic group in Pakistan and are perceived to dominate the ranks of the military locked in a battle to quash Balochistan’s armed factions.
Baloch civil leaders claim their communities are subject to a state-sanctioned regime of extrajudicial killings and disappearances, punishing them for political dissent.
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