KARACHI: Dwellers of Karachi, a seaside Pakistan metropolis, have kept away from the busiest roads and crowded marketplaces because of high humidity in the air as mercury began to go down after a week of heatwaves.
The temperature in Upper Sindh continued to stick as high as 48C.
“Most parts of the country will remain in the grip of the intense heat, with temperatures above 40C in sub-mountainous areas of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and AJK, and around 50C in interior Sindh, southern and central Punjab and eastern Balochistan,” read a handout issued by the Pakistan Meteorological Department (MET) on Thursday evening. It said that the sea breeze would come back gradually along the coastal belt, bringing the Karachi temperature to the normal range of 35-37C during next week.
Shaukat Ali, an official at the airport office of MET Department, told Arab News on Sunday that the temperature in Larkana and Shaheed Benazirabad cities of Sindh remained 46C during the day. “Mohenjo-Daro remained the hottest city for the day with 48C,” Ali said.
Last month, Karachi, capital of the Sindh province, experienced the highest temperature in May for 37 years on Wednesday when the mercury touched 46C, with 10 percent humidity. Friday, however, witnessed 35C in Karachi but humidity further enhanced, which brought little positive changes to the weather.
“Although the temperature will go down in the coming days, the high level of humidity will give people the feel of a high temperature,” Director Karachi Met Office Abdur Rashid told Arab News. The official sees no respite during the coming days of Ramadan for Karachiites but rules out deaths due to bad weather.
“In the coming days the weather will be warmer due to high humidity and the remaining fasting won’t be easy,” Rashid said, urging people to continue with precautionary measures against heatwaves.
In May, Jacobabad experienced the hottest day of the country, when mercury went up to 51C. “However, the country’s highest temperature of 54C was recorded in May 2017 in the Turbat town of Balochistan,” said Rashid.
Rashid said climate change in Karachi was caused by climate change in the Arabian Sea, which had witnessed radical but strange change recently. Dr. Qamar-Uz-Zaman Chaudhry, special adviser at the World Meteorological Organization, concurred but said there had been warnings about climate change which should have been taken seriously.
“In June 2015, over a thousand people died when heatwaves hit the coastal city but this year there is zero mortality due to awareness among the dwellers of the city,” Executive Director of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center Dr. Seemi Jamali told Arab News. “Not a single death has been caused by heatwaves,” she said, refuting a claim by the noted philanthropist Faisal Edhi. “Yes, there were few deaths due to heat depression but no death has been caused by heatwaves, credit for which goes to the media for raising awareness and the Met office for issuing timely early warnings,” she said.
Chaudhry said climate changes were global but locally more plantation in urban units could counter unwanted weathers. “The more plantation, the more greenery and better precautionary measures can help people to escape undesirable consequence of heatwaves,” Chaudhry said.
The deaths of June 2015 and mass awareness have scared people, traders believe. Abdul Samad Memon, owner of a garment shop at Karachi’s Zainab market, said the warning of heatwaves and hot weather had brought a drastic decrease in daytime customers.
“During Ramadan the daytime clientele went down but due to heatwaves it has become almost zero,” Memon told Arab News, saying if the weather didn’t normalize it may affect sales.
Rizwan, who stopped at a fountain at Arts Council Roundabout to take a shower, said he has seen no changes. Unaware of the weather science, Rizwan told Arab News he had been upset by the weather.
“Not everyone can afford to sit at home. I have come out to bring items to my shop,” he said. Rizwan and other passers-by like him have found a comfort in this fountain.
Fall in mercury brings little respite for Karachiites owing to high humidity
Fall in mercury brings little respite for Karachiites owing to high humidity
- Thousands died in June 2015 when heatwaves hit the seaside Pakistani metropolis for the first time
- In Mohenjo-Daro, the temperature on Friday had soared as high as 50C
France’s Le Pen insists party acted in ‘good faith’ at EU fraud appeal
- Le Pen said on her second day of questioning that even if her party broke the law, it was unintentional
- She also argued that the passage of time made it “extremely difficult” for her to prove her innocence
PARIS: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen told an appeals trial on Wednesday that her party acted in “good faith,” denying an effort to embezzle European Parliament funds as she fights to keep her 2027 presidential bid alive.
A French court last year barred Le Pen, a three-time presidential candidate from the far-right National Rally (RN), from running for office for five years over a fake jobs scam at the European institution.
It found her, along with 24 former European Parliament lawmakers, assistants and accountants as well as the party itself, guilty of operating a “system” from 2004 to 2016 using European Parliament funds to employ party staff in France.
Le Pen — who on Tuesday rejected the idea of an organized scheme — said on her second day of questioning that even if her party broke the law, it was unintentional.
“We were acting in complete good faith,” she said in the dock on Wednesday.
“We can undoubtedly be criticized,” the 57-year-old said, shifting instead the blame to the legislature’s alleged lack of information and oversight.
“The European Parliament’s administration was much more lenient than it is today,” she said.
Le Pen also argued that the passage of time made it “extremely difficult” for her to prove her innocence.
“I don’t know how to prove to you what I can’t prove to you, what I have to prove to you,” she told the court.
Eleven others and the party are also appealing in a trial to last until mid-February, with a decision expected this summer.
- Rules were ‘clear’ -
Le Pen was also handed a four-year prison sentence, with two years suspended, and fined 100,000 euros ($116,000) in the initial trial.
She now again risks the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a one-million-euro ($1.16 million) fine if the appeal fails.
Le Pen is hoping to be acquitted — or at least for a shorter election ban and no time under house arrest.
On Tuesday, Le Pen pushed back against the argument that there was an organized operation to funnel EU funds to the far-right party.
“The term ‘system’ bothers me because it gives the impression of manipulation,” she said.
EU Parliament official Didier Klethi last week said the legislature’s rules were “clear.”
EU lawmakers could employ assistants, who were allowed to engage in political activism, but this was forbidden “during working hours,” he said.
If the court upholds the first ruling, Le Pen will be prevented from running in the 2027 election, widely seen as her best chance to win the country’s top job.
She made it to the second round in the 2017 and 2022 presidential polls, before losing to Emmanuel Macron. But he cannot run this time after two consecutive terms in office.
