COLOMBO: Rivals India and Sri Lanka blasted the featherbed wicket that proved a bowlers? graveyard after the second Test ended in a high-scoring draw

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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) on Saturday predicted more monsoon rains during the next week and would start from August 2.

According to the press release issued here, Sindh, Punjab, Kashmir eastern parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and eastern parts of Balochistan would receive monsoon rains during the said period.

Director General Dr Qamar uz Zaman Chaudhry said that a fresh monsoon low pressure area after developing over Bay of Bengal now lies over central parts of India. This weather system would move towards Pakistan and approach our areas during the next 48 hours, he said.

Latest hydrological data indicate that Sindh specially areas along the Indus river would be badly affected due to extremely high flood conditions in the river Indus.

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Karachi

The Sindh High Court on Friday dismissed the appeal of an ex-police head constable against death sentence awarded to him for raping and

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Karachi

Additional District and Sessions Court Judge Abdul Razzak on Friday reserved an order regarding its jurisdiction to re-open proceeding

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PESHAWAR: There is high flood in all the rivers of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa while the Indus River has also grown rough at Attock Khairabad where water flow has reached 919000 cusecs.

Swat River is also witnessing high flood at Amandara where water is running at 500,000 cusecs. Moreover, Munda Headworks and Kabul River are in high flood at Warsak.

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Pakistan News

KASHMORE: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has said that all out efforts are being made to strengthen the embankments of protective bands of the Indus River on emergency basis in order to face the incoming flood, the peak water flow about 800,000 cusecs(eight Lac) will reach at Guddu Barrage on August 4 and 05.

This he said while talking to mediamen at Guddu barrage in Kashmore-Kandhkot district, on Saturday.

The chief minister also said that safeguarding the lives and property is the responsibility of the local administration and in this regard relief camps were established in different districts.

He advised the people of Katcha areas to shift immediately to the safer places; the local administration will provide facilities to them in this regard.

The chief minister said that Pakistan Army is alert for the assistance of civil administration during the flood emergency and the Pak-Army will also monitor the flood situation in the province.

He also said that the rangers and police will increase the patrolling to ensure security to the officers/officials who will be on the flood duty.

The chief minister informed the pressmen that the amount of Rs. 400 million approved for the strengthening of the protective bunds of River Indus.

He also said that his 28 Sindh cabinet ministers were assigned to monitor the flood situation in their respective areas.

The chief minister also said that the purpose of his visit is to see the position of irrigation water at Guddu barrage and to visit the strengthen work of vulnerable points on the right bank of Indus River.

On the occasion Chief Engineer Guddu barrage Zafarullah Mahar brifed the Sindh Chief Minister regarding the flood situation and flow of water in the Indus River.

He said that eight vulnerable and sensitive points are on the left and right sides of River Indus out of which K.K. protective Bund, Thori Bund and Qadirpur loop bund are more sensitive.

The Secretary Irrigation and Power Shuja Junejo briefed the Sindh Chief Minister that the officers and officials of Irrigation department are working round the clock on the protective bunds in order to face the incoming flood.

Later, The Sindh chief minister along with provincial minister Irrigation and Power Jam Saifulla Dharejo, Minister for Revenue Jam Mehtab Dahar, MPA Haji Anwar Khan Mahar, RPO Sukkur Muhammad Ramzan Channa, DCO Kashmore Syed Abid Ali Shah, PPP leaders and workers visited K.K bund near Baddani town in Kashmore and Kandhkot district.

The chief minister Sindh directed all the DCOs of the province to ensure the shifting of people of Katcha areas to safer places immediately, so that their lives and properties could be safe guarded at every cost.

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ISLAMABAD: Following the shocking remarks made by the British Prime Minister David Cameron against Pakistan, an ISI?s anti-terrorism experts delegatio

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SEHWAN SHARIF: The 758th Urs celebrations of Sufi saint Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar formally opened in Sehwan Sharif today.

Sindh Aukaf Minister Abdul Haseeb has opened the Urs being attended by thousands of devotees, who gathered here from every corner of the country.

Special arrangements have been put in place by the provincial government to facilitate the pilgrims.

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COLOMBO: Rivals India and Sri Lanka blasted the featherbed wicket that proved a bowlers? graveyard after the second Test ended in a high-scoring draw

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PESHAWAR: Rescue workers and troops in northwest Pakistan struggled Saturday to reach thousands of people affected by the country’’s worst floods in living memory, as the death toll rose to 800.

Hundreds of homes and vast swathes of farmland were destroyed in the northwest and Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK), with the main highway to China reportedly cut and communities isolated as monsoon rains caused flash floods and landslides.

The United Nations said almost a million people had been affected by the flooding, and at least 45 bridges destroyed around Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Television footage and photos shot from helicopters showed people clinging to the walls and roof tops of damaged houses as gushing waters rampaged through inundated villages.

Carrying their belongings and with children on their shoulders, some even walked barefoot through the water to seek safety.

“This is the worst ever flood in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the country’’s history,” provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said.

“The death toll in floods and rain-related incidents has risen up to 800 across the province,” he said.

Another 150 people were missing in the northwestern province, where many impoverished families live in remote mountain villages.

More than one million people have been affected, the minister said, adding that more than 3,700 houses had been swept away by floods and that the number of homeless people was rising.

Peshawar and the districts of Swat and Shangla were cut off from the rest of country as roads and highways were submerged, he said.

Police said five people were drowned when their boat capsized near the northwestern town of Nowshehra on Saturday.

Hundreds of people were seen arriving in Peshawar, many of them without any belongings.

Muqaddir Khan, 25, who arrived with nine other family members, said in a suburb of Peshawar that he had lost everything in flood.

“I laboured hard in Saudi Arabia for three years and set up a small shop which was swept away by flood in minutes. I have lost everything,” Khan said.

Razia Bibi, 48, said she and her family spent the night awake as water kept rising.

“My house is now gone under water and I could escape with a few belongings,” Bibi said.

Authorities are using school buildings in Peshawar to shelter those affected by the floods.

The army said it had sent boats and helicopters to rescue stranded people and its engineers were trying to open roads and divert water from key routes.

The flooding capped a week of tragedy for Pakistan, after an airliner crashed into hills near Islamabad Wednesday, killing 152 people on board.

Pakistan’’s weather bureau said an “unprecedented” 312 millimetres (12 inches) of rain had fallen in 36 hours in the northwest but predicted only scattered showers during coming days.

Provincial relief commissioner Shakil Qadir said the worst-hit area was Malakand, where 102 people died and 16,000 were marooned because bridges had collapsed and road links been cut.

Qadir said that around 2,800 holidaymakers were stranded in the Swat valley.

Efforts were being made to airlift the holidaymakers to safety in helicopters, he said.

The Karakoram Highway, which links Pakistan to China, was closed as rains washed away a bridge in Shangla district, also cutting off Gilgit-Baltistan from other parts of the country, media reports said.

Northwest Pakistan has been hardest hit but monsoon rains have also killed 25 people in the southwestern province of Balochistan over the past few days, a senior officer of the disaster management authority, Ataullah Khan, said.

Flash floods had affected eight districts, he said, adding that around 275,000 people had been affected and more than 15,000 houses destroyed.

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