Floods sweep future from Pakistan schoolchildren

In this picture taken on October 28, 2022, students walk across a metal girder atop floodwaters in Chandan Mori, in Dadu district of Sindh province. (Photo courtesy: AFP/File)
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Updated 16 November 2022
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Floods sweep future from Pakistan schoolchildren

  • Cataclysmic floods destroyed 27,000 schools this summer across Pakistan
  • Pakistan estimates economic losses of over $30 billon due to floods

CHANDAN MORI: Pakistani three-year-old Afshan’s trip to school is a high-wire balancing act as she teeters across a metal girder spanning a trench of putrid floodwater, eyes fixed ahead.

After record monsoon rain flooded her classroom in the southeastern town of Chandan Mori, this is the route Afshan and her siblings now traverse to a tent where her lessons take place.

“It’s a risky business to send children to school crossing that bridge,” Afshan’s father, Abdul Qadir, 23, told AFP.

“But we are compelled... to secure their future, and our own.”

In Pakistan, where a third of the country lives in hardship on less than $4 a day, education is a rare ticket out of grinding poverty.

But this summer, floods destroyed or damaged 27,000 schools and spurred a humanitarian disaster which saw 7,000 more commandeered as aid centers, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.

The education of 3.5 million children has been disrupted as a result, the charity said.

“Everything has gone away, we lost our studies,” said 10-year-old Kamran Babbar, who lives in a nearby tent city since his home and school were submerged.

Before the rains, which have been linked to climate change, Afshan followed her sisters to a lime green schoolhouse.

Some two-and-a-half months after they finally abated, her school remains swamped by standing water.

More than 300 boys and girls have decamped to three tents where they sit on floors lined with plastic sheeting, answering teachers’ questions in chorus.

As midday approaches the tents are baked by the sun, and students fan themselves with notebooks — quenching their thirst with mouthfuls of cloudy, polluted floodwater.

Many cannot summon the strength to stand when called to answer questions by teacher Noor Ahmed.

“When they fall sick, and the majority of them do, it drastically affects attendance,” he said.

In this conservative corner of Pakistan, many girls are already held back from school, groomed for lives of domestic labor.

Those students that were enrolled had their prospects dampened by hunger and malnutrition even before the monsoon washed away vast tracts of crops.

And over the past two years, the Covid-19 pandemic saw schools shut for 16 months.

The floods — which put a third of Pakistan underwater and displaced eight million — are yet one more hurdle many will not overcome.

“We are nurturing an ailing generation,” Ahmed said.

In the nearby town of Mounder, the monsoon storms tore the roof off the government school.

The walls are cracked and crumbling, and students now congregate outside, fearful of a collapse.

The boys learn under the shade of a tree in the courtyard, while the girls gather nearby in a donated tent.

“Such events will leave an everlasting traumatic impact on the girls,” teacher Rabia Iqbal said.

“If we want to make them mentally healthy, we will have to immediately move them from tents to proper classrooms,” she added.

But the return to school is unlikely to be swift.

Analysis suggests the bill for the reconstruction of schools and recovery of the education system will be nearly $1 billion — the total repair bill is close to $40 billion — in a nation already mired in economic turmoil.

Undaunted by the difficulties ahead, the girls of Chandan Mori’s high school trudge every day to a temporary classroom three kilometers (two miles) away.

“We will not be defeated by such circumstances,” 13-year-old Shaista Panwar said.


Imran Khan’s woes set to rule him out of Pakistan election race

Updated 10 sec ago
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Imran Khan’s woes set to rule him out of Pakistan election race

  • Participation of Imran Khan, the main opposition leader and former prime minister, in January’s general election is doubtful
  • Khan remains in jail after being convicted in a graft case in August despite his three-year sentence being suspended by a court

ISLAMABAD: The participation of main opposition leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan in Pakistan’s general election set for January next year remains doubtful. Khan, winner of the last election in 2018, remains in jail after being convicted in a graft case in August despite his three-year sentence being suspended by a court.

Here are some facts about the options for Khan, 70, who is the country’s most popular party leader according to independent opinion polls:

BARRED FROM PUBLIC OFFICE

Khan, 70, remains barred from holding public office for five years due to his conviction, despite the suspension of his jail sentence. The bar will remain in place until his conviction is overturned by the high court, where he has appealed, a situation that currently rules him out of the January elections.

It remains unclear if his appeal will be decided in time for the next election, but aside from this graft case, the former cricket star faces dozens of other serious cases, too, which carry sentences from five years up to a death penalty.

STATE SECRETS CASE

Khan remains in judicial custody for a case related to leaking state secrets, which is at a pre-trial stage being heard by a special court that holds proceedings at a prison where he’s detained on security grounds. This week, another court allowed police to add sedition charges against him in two cases related to abetting attacks against military installations on May 9 by his supporters to protest against his brief arrest.

KHAN’S PTI WEAKENED

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party can still contest the elections and will seek to tap into a sympathy vote, but it has been severely hobbled by the departure of key leaders in the aftermath of the May violence and the crackdown that ensued.

In Khan’s absence, the PTI was being led by former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, but he too has been arrested in the state secrets case.

ROLE OF THE MILITARY

Analysts say the military-backed caretaker government, which has been questioned by the election commission over its credibility, wouldn’t let Khan bounce back, especially as independent polls show him to be the most popular party leader, a standing that could earn the PTI a good showing in January’s election.

Khan and his party continue to accuse the military of being behind his ousting and the crackdown.

The military, which according to analysts brought Khan to power in 2018, denies being behind his removal. His criticism of the armed forces and its top brass has not eased, and his appeals to the military to open talks with him haven’t yielded a response.

The military’s support remains key to anyone looking to attain power in Pakistan.


Pakistan PM says pushing for $10 billion disbursement of pledged flood-relief funds

Updated 11 min 54 sec ago
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Pakistan PM says pushing for $10 billion disbursement of pledged flood-relief funds

  • Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar points out Pakistan’s flood recovery plan was built around the international pledges
  • The climate-induced floods affected million people and killed over 1,700 during last year’s monsoon season

KARACHI: Pakistan is striving to get donors to release $10 billion in pledges to help it recover from devastating floods by launching rebuilding projects that hinge on the funding, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-haq Kakar said on Friday.

Donors from around the world stepped up after Pakistan was hammered by floods last year and the $10 billion amounts to more than half of what Islamabad estimated it needed to rebound from the disaster.

“In all our interactions, one point has been that the projects are designed in accordance with the pledges, and that we ensure that they convert to tangible financial assistance,” Kakar told the national broadcaster.

“We’re trying to ensure that the amounts promised and pledged to us are dispersed to Pakistan and are spent on those affected by the floods,” he said.

Such funding is crucial for cash-strapped Pakistan but the government says it has not arrived, amid growing concerns about its future debt obligations. An IMF bailout was delayed until July this year over concerns about a lack of fiscal reform.

Among the donors were the Islamic Development Bank with $4.2 billion, the World Bank with $2 billion, Saudi Arabia with $1 billion, as well as the European Union and China. France and the United States also made contributions.

The floods, which scientists said were aggravated by global warming, affected at least 33 million people and killed more than 1,700 from the beginning of the monsoon season in mid-June 2022 until mid-November that year.


UK police release new images in fresh appeal for clues about British-Pakistani girl’s death

Updated 43 min 35 sec ago
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UK police release new images in fresh appeal for clues about British-Pakistani girl’s death

  • Surrey Police hope the release of images will prompt people to share information about Sara Sharif and her family
  • UK authorities were alerted about her death by a call from Pakistan in which a man identified himself as her father

LONDON: British police on Friday released new pictures and renewed their appeal for information into the death of a 10-year-old girl, whose father will face trial for her murder.
Sara Sharif’s body was discovered at her family’s home in southern England on August 10.
A post-mortem examination revealed Sharif had sustained “multiple and extensive injuries” over a long period.
Her father, stepmother and uncle have been charged with murder and causing or allowing the death of a child.
They are expected to stand trial next autumn.
Surrey Police said they were releasing the new images “as part of our ongoing appeal for information to help us build a picture of her life prior to the discovery of her body.”
Police added that the photos “present Sara in the way we believe she may have dressed in the months prior to her death.”
“We are hoping that these images will prompt more people to come forward with information about her and her family.”
One of the pictures shows Sharif wearing a black hijab in what looks like a school photo and in the other she is wearing a blue hijab.
Sara’s father Urfan Sharif, 41, his partner Beinash Batool, 29, and his brother Faisal Malik, 28, traveled to Pakistan the day before her body was found.
An early morning emergency call alerting officers to Sara’s death was made from Pakistan by a man identifying himself as the father, according to detectives.
Following a month in the South Asian country, they returned to the UK on September 13 and were arrested on arrival at London’s Gatwick Airport.
They have been remanded in custody and are due to appear in court on December 1 for a plea hearing.
Their trial is due to begin on September 2, 2024 and is expected to last six weeks.
 


IMF chief wants Pakistan to increase tax revenue from rich, protect vulnerable

Updated 22 September 2023
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IMF chief wants Pakistan to increase tax revenue from rich, protect vulnerable

  • The poor segments have been suffering due to high inflation which the government has attributed to IMF reforms
  • Kristalina Georgieva says economic reforms are not easy to implement but they are in the interest of Pakistani people

ISLAMABAD: International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday her organization had been consistently communicating the need for Pakistani authorities to generate more tax revenue from wealthier social segments while protecting the underprivileged classes in the country.

The top IMF official made the comment during a brief interaction with a Pakistani reporter on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

Her statement comes against the backdrop of spiraling inflation in Pakistan which has primarily affected the poor. The government has consistently attributed the increasing cost of living in the country to stringent economic reforms recommended by the international lender while approving a $3 billion bailout in June.

“Let me send a simple message to everybody in Pakistan,” she said while speaking to Geo News correspondent. “What we are asking in our program is please collect more taxes from the wealthy and please protect the poor people of Pakistan.”

“I do believe that this is in line with what people in Pakistan would like to see for the country,” she added.

The IMF chief acknowledged the conditions laid down by her organization to revitalize Pakistan’s economy and address the mistakes of the past were not easy to implement.

However, she maintained they were in the interest of the people of Pakistan.

Georgieva statement comes following her meeting with Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Tuesday in which she was briefed on measures taken by the country’s interim administration to stabilize the economy.

The IMF asked Pakistan to raise energy prices and following market-driven exchange rate which made the CPI hit a record 38 percent this year and the national currency plummet to all-time lows.

Kakar said he had a “constructive dialogue” with the IMF chief who, in turn, said there was an agreement to follow policies to ensure stability and foster sustainable and inclusive growth in Pakistan.


International report highlights polio eradication challenges in Pakistan, other countries

Updated 22 September 2023
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International report highlights polio eradication challenges in Pakistan, other countries

  • There have only been seven cases of wild polio reported this year, five in Afghanistan and two in Pakistan
  • Experts say outbreaks linked to vaccine-derived polio are more challenging and have paralyzed more children

LONDON: The global effort to end polio is likely to miss two key targets this year on the path toward defeating the virus, according to an independent strategic review.

The aim in 2023 was to interrupt the transmission of wild polio in the two countries where it is still endemic, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and do the same for a variant form of polio known as “vaccine-derived” that is causing outbreaks elsewhere.

The Independent Monitoring Board, a group of polio experts who oversee the work of the UN-backed Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), said neither target would be hit this year.

The GPEI agreed on both counts, citing insecurity in key locations as one of the remaining challenges and stressing in a statement responding to the review that ending the vaccine-derived outbreaks is likely to take the most time.

Wiping out polio, a viral disease that can cause paralysis, has been a key global health aim for decades. Cases have been reduced by more than 99 percent since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns, but making polio the second infectious disease ever to be completely eradicated, after smallpox in 1980 – has proved more difficult.

“But it can be done. And we need to make sure we finish the job,” said Aidan O’Leary, director of polio eradication at the World Health Organization, a GPEI partner alongside governments and funders like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

There have only been seven cases of wild polio reported this year, five in Afghanistan and two in Pakistan.

O’Leary said interrupting transmission of this form of polio was likely to happen by early 2024, just a few months after the target.

This meant the hope of a conclusive end to polio by 2026 remained alive, at least for wild polio, he said in a phone interview with Reuters on Thursday.

However, outbreaks linked to vaccine-derived polio are more challenging, he said. This form of polio can occur when children are immunized with a vaccine containing a weakened version of the live virus. They are protected, but the weakened virus excreted by these immunized children can spread and mutate among an unvaccinated population, ultimately becoming harmful.

Such viruses have recently paralyzed nearly 50 times more children than wild poliovirus, the monitoring board review said.

The GPEI aims to focus its vaccination and surveillance efforts on the areas where these kinds of polioviruses are concentrated: the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, north western Nigeria, south-central Somalia, and northern Yemen, O’Leary said.

“This is what is needed to shift the game,” he said. “Clearly the timelines are under review ... but we can do what has to be done.”