ISLAMABAD: Bahrain’s Interior Minister, Lt. Gen. Rashid bin Abdullah Al-Khalifa on Sunday held a telephonic conversation with his Pakistani counterpart Mohsin Naqvi and extended condolences over the loss of nearly 800 lives in Pakistan this monsoon season, Pakistani state media reported.
Deadly rains and floods have swept several parts of Pakistan, particularly its northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, killing 798 persons since Jun. 26, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
KP has reported the highest number of deaths, 479, followed by Punjab with 165, Sindh with 54, GB with 45, Balochistan with 24 and Azad Kashmir with 23 casualties while Islamabad has reported eight deaths.
During his telephonic conversation with Naqvi, the Bahraini interior minister expressed sorrow over the devastation caused by monsoon rains and conveyed his heartfelt sympathies to the bereaved families, the Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported.
“Bahrain stands with the Pakistani brothers and sisters in this difficult hour and is ready to help the flood victims,” he was quoted as saying.
Naqvi thanked his Bahraini counterpart for expressing solidarity with flood victims, according to the report. He shared the devastation caused by floods, rains and cloudbursts could not be “expressed in words.”
Pakistani authorities have warned that monsoon showers, expected to last until Sept. 10, can trigger floods on the scale of those witnessed by the country in 2010.
“The prime minister directed all concerned authorities to be fully prepared for relief operations in the lower parts of the country in view of the flood situation in the coming days,” PM Shehbaz Sharif’s office said in a statement.
Pakistan ranks among the world’s most vulnerable nations to climate change, despite contributing less than 1 percent to global greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2022, unusually heavy rains and the melting of glaciers triggered flash floods that at one point inundated one-third of the country, killed over 1,700 people and inflicted losses of over $30 billion as per government estimates.
