ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s newly elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday announced up to Rs2 million compensation for families of individuals who lost their lives in last week’s torrential rains and floods in the southwestern Balochistan province.
The prime minister made the announcement while speaking to media along with provincial officials, after he inspected relief activities in the southwestern port city of Gwadar, which has been severely battered by floods triggered by heavy rains over the past week.
Streets and neighborhoods in the deep-sea port city as well as Kharan and Kech districts remain inundated with floodwater after last week’s downpours destroyed nearly a hundred homes and forced authorities to launch operations to rescue thousands of stranded people.
Sharif said torrential rains that began on Feb. 26 had killed five people in Balochistan and wreaked destruction in Gwadar and other parts of the province, with several others injured in rain-related incidents.
“I have decided that those who lost their loved ones [due to the storms] they would be given Rs2 million ($7,155) per head, while Rs500,000 ($1,788) will be issued to those who have been injured,” Sharif said.
“My elders, brothers and sisters, this is not a favor on you, this is the duty of the newly elected government,” he told flood-affectees.
According to a report by the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) issued on Monday, 97 houses have been destroyed in Balochistan’s Kharan, Kech and Gwadar districts due to last week’s heavy rains.
The prime minister said the government had distributed cheques of Rs750,000 ($2,683) among people whose homes were completely destroyed by the floods, while those whose houses were partially damaged were given Rs350,000 ($1,252).
Pakistan's Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif receives a briefing from chairman of the country's National Disaster Management Authority, Chairman Lt. General Inam Haider Malik, on his way to Gwadar, Pakistan, on March 5, 2024. (Government of Pakistan)
Flanked by Balochistan’s newly elected Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti, Sharif said he had arrived in Gwadar to express solidarity with the affected people and to assure them that the government would pay for the losses incurred by them.
The prime minister announced that 7,000 bags of food would be sent to Gwadar daily, starting Wednesday.
“I would request my brother [CM Bugti] to distribute them in an efficient way,” Sharif said. “And this process of providing food will continue till the people do not return to their homes.”
Separately, the prime minister distributed relief goods among the affected people.
Other parts of the country also remain affected by heavy rains and snowfall. Pakistani officials said on Monday that at least 36 people had been killed and dozens injured in five days as heavy rains and snowfall battered Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region.
In Balochistan, heavy snowfall brought daily life to a standstill in Quetta and other northern parts of the southwestern province, with main highways and inter-provincial roads blocked since Saturday, disconnecting the province from other parts of the country.
Large swathes of Pakistan were submerged in 2022 due to extremely heavy monsoon rains and melting glaciers, a phenomenon linked to climate change that damaged crops and infrastructure and killed at least 1,700 people and affected over 30 million.
The South Asian country consistently ranks among one of the most adversely affected countries from the effects of climate change.
