ISLAMABAD: The death toll from rain-related incidents in Pakistan has jumped to 347 since the beginning of monsoon season in July, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said on Friday, adding another 648 people were wounded in disasters.
Monsoon rains are crucial for Pakistan’s agrarian economy, providing essential water for crops and replenishing water reservoirs.
However, the country has lately been experiencing increasingly erratic weather patterns, including harsh rains, heatwaves, droughts and floods.
“347 people including 54 females and 175 children lost their lives in monsoon rains [since July 1],” the NDMA said on Friday. “648 people including 153 females and 252 children were also injured.”
Monsoon downpours have completely destroyed 5,703 homes, while 31,803 houses were partially damaged since July 1, according to the authority.
More showers lashed Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and several other cities in Pakistan late Friday.
Scientists have blamed the erratic weather changes in Pakistan on climate change. This year, the South Asian country recorded its “wettest April since 1961,” with 59.3 millimeters of rainfall, while some areas of the country faced deadly heatwaves in May and June.
In 2022, unusually heavy rains triggered floods in many parts of the country, killing over 1,700 people, inflicting economic losses of around $30 billion, and affecting at least 30 million people.

KARACHI: Pakistan is renegotiating contracts with independent power producers to rein in “unsustainable” electricity tariffs, the head of the power ministry said, as households and businesses buckle under soaring energy costs.
Rising power tariffs have stirred social unrest and shuttered industries in the $350 billion economy, which has contracted twice in recent years as inflation hit record highs.
“The existing price structure of power in this country is not sustainable,” Awais Leghari, a federal minister heading Pakistan’s Power Division, told Reuters in an interview on Friday.
He said discussions were under way between power producers and the government because “there is a clear understanding on both sides that the status quo can’t be maintained.”
Leghari stressed that all stakeholders would have to “give in to a certain point” — though without compromising completely on business sustainability — and this would have to be done “as soon as possible.”
Faced with chronic shortages a decade ago, Pakistan approved dozens of private projects by independent power producers (IPPs), financed mostly by foreign lenders. The incentivized deals included high guaranteed returns and commitments to even pay for unused power.
However, a sustained economic crisis has slashed power consumption, leaving the country with excess capacity that it needs to pay for.
Short of funds, the government has built those fixed costs and capacity payments into consumer bills, sparking protests by domestic users and industrial associations.
Four sources in the power sector told Reuters changes to contracts demanded included slashing guaranteed returns, capping dollar rates and moving away from paying for unused power. The sources requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.
On Saturday, local media outlet Business Recorder said in a report citing sources that 24 conditions have been proposed for the transition of capacity-based model to take-and-pay model.
However, Leghari told Reuters that no new draft agreements or specific demands had been officially sent to power companies and said the government would not force them to sign new watered down contracts.
“We would sit and talk to them in a civil and professional manner,” he said, adding that the government has always maintained contractual obligations to investors, both foreign and local. He said contract revisions would be by “mutual consent.”
Energy sector viability was the focus of a critical staff level pact in May with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $7 billion bailout. The IMF’s staff report stressed the need to revisit power deals.
Pakistan has already initiated talks on reprofiling power sector debt owed to China as well as negotiations on structural reforms, but progress has been slow. Pakistan has also committed to stop power sector subsidies.
Leghari said current rates were not affordable for domestic or commercial consumers and this was hurting growth because power prices were no longer regionally competitive, putting critical exports at a disadvantage.
He said the aim was to bring tariffs down to 9 US cents per unit for commercial users from about 28 cents currently.