PM Shehbaz Declares Climate and Agricultural Emergency Amid Devastating Floods

APP

Islamabad: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday announced the in-principle approval of a climate and agricultural emergency, citing the ongoing monsoon rains and floods that have caused widespread devastation across Pakistan.

Chairing a federal cabinet meeting in Islamabad, the prime minister said the recent floods had claimed over 1,000 lives, displaced thousands of families, and inundated millions of acres of cultivable land, severely damaging crops such as wheat and cotton.

“We are confronted with enormous challenges posed by climate change that cannot be overcome overnight. A comprehensive roadmap and strategy must be formulated,” the prime minister said in his televised remarks.

The cabinet decided that the prime minister will soon convene a meeting with all four provincial chief ministers and relevant stakeholders to formulate a future strategy to mitigate damages from climate impacts.

Support for Farmers and Restoration of Infrastructure

Cabinet members discussed measures for restoring agricultural land, compensating farmers for crop losses, and rebuilding damaged infrastructure. The prime minister stressed that both federal and provincial governments would jointly contribute to rehabilitation and relief efforts.

Condemnation of Anti-Army Campaigns

The cabinet strongly condemned derogatory and offensive content against the martyrs and the Armed Forces on social media. PM Shehbaz called such propaganda a “fitna” that must be crushed, directing strict action against those spreading malicious material.

“The nation is proud of its martyrs and their families. Their sacrifices can never be forgotten,” he said, while paying tribute to Major Adnan Aslam Shaheed, who embraced martyrdom in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The cabinet offered Fateha for the late relatives of federal ministers Junaid Anwar Chaudhry, Malik Rasheed Ahmad Khan, and former Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani.

Economic and Connectivity Decisions

The cabinet also approved several key economic measures, including:

• Provision of RLNG connections to long-waiting consumers, which will be 30% cheaper than LPG.
• Endorsement of the trilateral intergovernmental framework agreement between Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan for a joint feasibility study on regional railway connectivity.
• Ratification of decisions taken by the ECC, Cabinet Committee on Inter-Governmental Commercial Transactions (CCoIGCT), and Cabinet Committee for Legislative Cases (CCLC).

The prime minister also highlighted his recent visit to China, where a Pakistan-China Business Conference resulted in $8.5 billion worth of agreements under CPEC Phase II, with agriculture as the primary focus. He emphasized that China would make 85% of the investment, with Pakistan contributing the remaining 15%.

PM Shehbaz further revealed that U.S. companies had expressed interest in investing in Pakistan’s mineral exploration sector using modern technology, reaffirming Islamabad’s intent to strengthen ties with both China and the United States.