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Armed forces rescue 2,000 marooned by catastrophic floods

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  • Pakistan struggling with disaster blamed on climate change that has swamped about third of country.
  • Several villages inundated with as much as 11 feet of water in Sindh’s Dadu district.
  • Country expects several humanitarian relief flights to arrive today.

The armed forces have rescued a further 2,000 people stranded by rising floodwaters, they said on Friday, in a disaster blamed on climate change that has swamped about a third of the nation and is still growing.

Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in northern mountains brought floods that have killed at least 1,208 people, including 416 children, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has said.

The United Nations has appealed for $160 million in aid to help tackle what it said was an “unprecedented climate catastrophe” as Pakistan’s navy has fanned out inland to carry out relief operations in areas that resemble a sea.

In the Dadu district of Sindh, one of the worst-affected provinces, several villages were under as much as 11 feet (3.35 m) of water, according to Bashir Khan, a local resident who is in contact with people remaining in the area.

“My house is under water, I had left my place four days ago with my family,” he told Reuters.

People launch a wooden boat into rising flood waters on the Indus highway, following rains and floods during the monsoon season in Mehar, Pakistan, August 31, 2022. — Reuters
People launch a wooden boat into rising flood waters on the Indus highway, following rains and floods during the monsoon season in Mehar, Pakistan, August 31, 2022. — Reuters

In neighbouring Mehar, residents were constructing a dike in an attempt to prevent floodwaters from entering the town, he said.

The navy airlifted more than 150 people from villages in Dadu on Thursday, it said in a statement.

On Friday, the military said it had evacuated about 50,000 people, including 1,000 by air, since rescue efforts began.

“During the last 24 hours, 1,991 stranded individuals have been evacuated,” the armed forces said in a statement, adding that nearly 163 tonnes of relief supplies had also been delivered to the flood-affected.

Several humanitarian relief flights are set to arrive on Friday from Middle Eastern nations such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the Foreign Office said.

Weather officials predict more rains and flash flooding in the month of September, with southern regions bracing for a surge of water from the Indus river.

Sindh has asked relief camps to deploy additional female doctors and medical officers, to ensure adequate care as more pregnant women and young mothers are displaced by the waters.

Pakistan received nearly 190% more rain than its 30-year average in the quarter from June to August, totalling 390.7mm (15.38 inches).

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Nawaz Sharif departs for a five-day personal visit to China.

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Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and a former prime minister, departed for China on Monday night for a five-day private visit.

Nawaz Sharif is visiting China, escorted by Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.

Nawaz Sharif reportedly planned to see Chinese company owners as well as discuss the Punjab province’s development projects. During his visit in China, he will also have a medical examination.

In addition, the fact that Nawaz and his party chose China for his first overseas trip after he returned to Pakistan in October of last year shows how much weight the Asian superpower holds.

Eight other Chinese companies were reportedly prepared to start working right away, while 16 Chinese companies had expressed interest in the Nawaz Sharif IT City, which is the brainchild of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, who has plans for similar projects in all of the province’s major cities.

Remarkably, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s scheduled visit to China ahead of his anticipated talks with Chinese authorities next month coincides with the elder Sharif’s visit.

Dar’s presence alongside Nawaz simultaneously underscores the party leadership’s confidence in him and serves as a reminder of why he was chosen to be foreign minister.

The fact that this visit was organized in the wake of the recent terror assault in Shangla on Chinese engineers involved in the Dasu hydroelectric Project, however, may provide some insight into the significance of this visit.

That was followed by Pakistan’s resolute pledge to deal harshly with those groups that have been attacking Chinese citizens in an effort to undermine the cordial relations between the two countries.

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Education

The president of Iran’s wife, Dr. Jamileh, claims that knowledge without ethics is worthless.

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The Iranian President’s wife, Dr. Jamileh-Sadat Alamolhoda, claimed on Monday that Islam had illuminated the globe 1400 years ago by emphasizing the value of knowledge.

She said, “Knowledge without ethics has no value,” during her speech at the National University of Modern Languages (NUML).

Dr. Jamileh earlier today opened the university’s cultural festival. She visited a number of foreign and national booths exhibiting distinct cultures and customs.

Attendees included academic members, a sizable student body, Director General Brig Shahzad Munir, Rector NUML Major General (retd) Shahid Mahmood Kayani, and many others.

Speaking to the pupils, Dr. Jamileh added that religious leaders in Iran and this area were crucial in keeping the nations unified during the colonial era.

She was impressed by Muhammad Iqbal, the Poet of the East, for his contribution to the dissemination of Islamic norms and knowledge via his poetry.

She also gave a speech at the launch of her own book, “The Art of Living Femininely,” adding that it was also being translated into Urdu.

She expressed gratitude for NUML’s contribution to the creation and sharing of knowledge and expressed a willingness to investigate the potential for reciprocal scholarly cooperation in the fields of languages and science and technology.

Thanking the NUML administration for welcoming her and giving her a chance to engage with the teachers and students, Dr. Jamileh expressed her gratitude.

In his remarks at the event, the Rector NUML stated that profound people-to-people links as well as bilateral relations between Pakistan and Iran are historical, fraternal, and mutually trustworthy.

The honorable guest accepted an honorary doctorate in educational sciences from the NUML Rector.

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To discuss the judges’ letter, the IHC CJ calls for a full court meeting.

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A full court conference has been called by the chief justice of the Islamabad High Court for this Tuesday in order to consider the matter of the letter of six IHC judges.

The full court session is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. All judges, including district and session court judges, have been asked for comments by the chief justice’s office of the Islamabad High Court.

The development follows accusations made by six judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the nation’s intelligence services for meddling in judicial matters.

Judges Babar Sattar, Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, Arbab Muhammad Tahir, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, and Justice Rafat Imtiaz are the six judges.

In response to the letter, Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa had intimated on March 27 that the Supreme Court would convene as a full court.

The Supreme Court’s Justice Yahya Afridi has withdrawn from the suo moto case involving the letter authored by six judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

Prior to this, the Islamabad High Court Bar Association petitioned the Supreme Court under the Constitution, asking for an open and impartial inquiry into the six judges’ letter that purportedly involved meddling in judicial matters.

The petitioner begged the supreme court to prosecute individuals who were found to have influenced the legal system.

The petition claimed that the judges had brought up a serious matter. “If the apex court deems it necessary, it should refer the matter to the Supreme Judicial Council for review,” it requested.

The petitioner argued that the only source of justice and defender of the Constitution was an independent judiciary. Under no circumstances can the judiciary’s independence be compromised.

How it started

A letter against the “interference of intelligence agencies in judicial matters” was sent to the Supreme Judicial Council on March 25 by six justices of the Islamabad High Court.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court took suo moto notice and made hints about forming a full court to consider the case. Prior to that, the federal government established a one-man inquiry commission, but Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, the former chief justice, refused to allow the body to begin any proceedings.

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