HYDERABAD/KARACHI: PPP on Sunday staged rallies across Sindh to condemn India’s unilateral attempt to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) and its plans to divert Pakistani waters in the Indus river system.

Water and the IWT remain a contentious issue between India and Pakistan, following New Delhi’s unilateral abeyance of the accord last year — a move that was followed by a brief military conflict between the two sides in May 2025.

PPP activists held demonstrations in several districts and cities, including Karachi, Hyderabad, Thar, Mirpurkhas, Larkana, Shikarpur, Naushahro Feroze and Dadu. They gathered under the slogan ‘marsoon marsoon, Sindhu na desoon’ (We will die, but we will not give up the Indus).

Leading a rally in Hyderabad, PPP Sindh chapter president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had raised the issue at global forums and would take it to a logical end.

The rally started from Shahbaz Building Chowk and culminated outside the local press club in the evening. PPP district president and MNA Tariq Shah Jamot, general secretary Waseem Rajput, Hyderabad divisional president Ajiz Dhamra and others also spoke.

Khuhro asserted that PPP had always stood for Pakistan because it has a federalist colour. He said Bilawal had challenged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an international forum, adding that Modi “would get an answer now”.

Khuhro, also an MPA, said that since the PPP had taken the decision to raise the issue of water in public, the party would mobilise people in every village.

He said Bilawal had decided to approach people on the issue of Pakistan’s share of the Indus waters. He said that PPP supporters would make Bilawal the prime minister so that he could protect the country’s interests.

The IWT, brokered by the World Bank in 1960, regulates the distribution of the Indus river system between India and Pakistan. It allocates the eastern rivers — Ravi, Beas and Sutlej — to India, while the western rivers — Indus, Jhelum and Chenab — are largely allocated to Pakistan.

Khuhro asserted that Pakistanis would never tolerate an attack on their country and its integrity. He remarked that Bilawal could even single-handedly deal with the issue because he “has the courage”.

Recalling that the PPP had opposed the construction of the controversial Kalabagh Dam during late military dictator Pervez Musharraf’s tenure, Khuhro said, “How could anyone build any controversial canal?”

The senior politician stressed that Bilawal was clear in his stance over provincial autonomy and the water issue. He criticised “parties like PTI” for saying that the federation had gone bankrupt due to provincial autonomy.

He wondered why parties such as the PTI and the MQM-P allegedly never questioned India when the latter was hitting at their country’s integrity.

Meanwhile, MPAs Ejaz Shah Bukhari and Khurram Karim Soomro led another rally on Hyderabad’s Phulelli road.

PPP activists attending the rally vowed to protect the Indus river as it was the only source of livelihood for millions in Sindh and described India’s actions as “water terrorism”.

The participants sounded the alarm on Sindh’s standing crops facing damage due to water shortage, while sea intrusion was devouring the agricultural land in the Indus delta.

Contending that the Water Accord of 1991 was not being implemented by the federal government, PPP leaders said the party would take up this issue with the Centre to seek Sindh’s share of water.

Water shortages in Sindh and Balochistan deepened last month as Punjab drew excess water, threatening the downstream provinces’ agricultural activities and drinking water supplies.

PPP district information secretary Dr Mir Hassan Mallah, district council vice chairman Ghulam Mustafa Jat and others were also present at the demonstration.

Saeed Ghani says war would be only option if water denied

It took note of the “Indian rhetoric surrounding” the IWT and reaffirmed the guidance given in last year’s National Security Committee (NSC) directive, which said any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water under the treaty would be an “act of war”.

Stating that the campaign against India’s alleged water aggression was not the struggle of the Pakistani leadership alone, Ghani urged the public to raise their voice.

He further alleged that India was seeking to avenge its previous setbacks and warned that if New Delhi failed to act responsibly, Pakistan’s political leadership should consider declaring war.

The minister added that any aggression would be met with a response “that generations would remember”.

Ghani maintained that neither Pakistan nor India had the authority to disregard the treaty unilaterally. Any amendment to the agreement, he said, required the consent of both countries.

He pointed out that despite the wars of 1965 and 1971, neither side had withdrawn from the treaty, demonstrating its enduring legal status.

The rally was attended by PPP District South President Javed Nagori, General Secretary Taimur Sial, Abdul Majeed Mulla, Fareed Memon, Aslam Samoon, Khalil Houth and a large number of people.

Meanwhile, addressing his rally in the Keamari district, Senator Mehdi said that India’s unilateral attempt to suspend IWT posed a grave threat to regional peace and stability.

He stressed that using water as a weapon or an instrument of political coercion was an extremely dangerous and inhumane act.

He warned that any attempt to block or usurp Pakistan’s share of water would be considered an attack on the country’s economy, agriculture, food security, national security, and the fundamental rights of its people.

He reiterated PPP’s resolve to continue its struggle to protect Pakistan’s water rights through every constitutional, legal, diplomatic, and democratic forum.

Flash floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains have killed at least 50 people in Bangladesh in the past week, officials said on Sunday, with tens of thousands displaced from their homes.

Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation criss-crossed by rivers, is highly vulnerable to floods and landslides during the monsoon season, but scientists say climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.

For the last few days, army and border guard personnel have been ferrying food, drinking water and other essential supplies by boat to communities cut off because of heavy flooding in the country’s southeastern districts.

As many as 50 people have died in the worst-affected Chattogram district in the past week, including 29 who were buried by landslides, divisional commissioner Mohammed Ziauddin told AFP by phone.

“Two individuals are still missing,” he said.

Some 35,000 people have been forced to seek shelter in government-run centres, he added.

Among those caught up in the disaster in Chattogram was Mohammed Forkan, whose family could not fulfil his wish to be buried beside his parents because the local cemetery was submerged under chest-deep water.

“We placed my uncle’s body on a bamboo raft and swam alongside it in search of a piece of land that was not underwater,” his nephew Nizamuddin told AFP.

“Finally, we managed to bury him on government land and held a small funeral prayer.”

Authorities have opened some 4,000 shelters for displaced residents as shortages of food and safe drinking water deepened the crisis.

Many people remain in desperate conditions, with their homes and kitchens submerged by floodwaters, residents said.

Last week, heavy rains triggered landslides in Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, killing 15 people.

More than 1.2 million refugees live in congested shelters on hillsides cleared of trees — making the land unstable during monsoon rains.

Sarder Udoy Raihan of the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre said Sunday the situation in southeastern districts was likely to improve soon.

“But the monsoon remains active over the northeastern and northern parts of Bangladesh, and there is a possibility of further inundation,” he told AFP.

President Zardari, PM Shehbaz offer condolences

Iraq’s Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi will visit Washington on Monday to deepen strategic ties with the United States, with oil and gas deals expected to be signed as part of a broader push for economic, trade and investment cooperation.

Iraq has been seeking to balance its ties with neighbouring Iran and the US as military escalation between the two rivals continues.

“The agreements to be signed will include several memorandums of understanding in the oil and gas sector as Iraq prepares to bring in various US companies that will provide momentum to increase oil production capacity,” government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi said.

Iraq’s state news agency, citing al-Aboudi, said the planned oil and gas agreements would also seek to create alternative export outlets to reduce Iraq’s exposure to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iraq, like other Gulf oil producers, has suffered a drop in oil revenue due to the effective closure of the vital shipping route during the US-Iran war.

Al-Aboudi said strengthening Iraq’s armed forces would also be among the issues discussed in Washington.

Relations between Iraq and the US have at times been strained over the presence of US troops in Iraq, Baghdad’s ties with Iran, and US pressure on Iraq to curb the influence of armed groups.

However, after being nominated for the premiership in April, Ali al-Zaidi received congratulations from US President Donald Trump, who said he hoped for closer cooperation between Baghdad and Washington.

BERLIN: Ninety-nine people drowned in Germany last month, the most since a record heatwave swept Europe in 2003, according to official figures.

Germany was among the nations hit by a stifling June heatwave in western Europe, which set temperature records in several places across the country as the mercury rose as high as 41.7C.

The country “had not registered this many drownings since the heatwave of June 2003, when 107 people died”, the national lifeguarding federation (DLRG) said Sunday in a statement.

Last month’s heatwave brought wildfires, rail travel chaos and an increased mortality rate in Germany.

The drowning victims were largely young men, the federation said.

Forty of them were less than 30 years old, the largest group among those whose ages are known, and more than 90 percent were males.

“Men are more likely to take excessive risks and underestimate the dangers. They also enter the water more frequently under the influence of alcohol or other drugs,” said DLRG president Ute Vogt.

Most of the drownings happened in lakes and rivers.

Peshawar  –  Adviser to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister on Finance Muzzammil Aslam on Saturday blamed what he described as the Punjab government’s policy failures for the country’s worsening wheat crisis, claiming Pakistan was facing record wheat and flour prices only three months after the harvest.

In a statement, Aslam said the current crisis was the third major disruption to wheat supplies during the four years of the Shehbaz Sharif government. He alleged that public attention was being diverted from the issue by focusing on the petroleum levy.

He said wheat was currently selling for around Rs11,600 per 100kg from Karachi to Peshawar, while retail prices had reached approximately Rs115 per kilogram for wheat and between Rs130 and Rs150 per kilogram for flour. By comparison, he said, flour had been available at Rs65 to Rs70 per kilogram in 2022.

Aslam maintained that despite the sharp increase in market prices, wheat growers were facing severe financial hardship because of rising production costs, particularly electricity, fertiliser and diesel. He also claimed that Pakistan was increasingly being classified among food-insecure countries.

The adviser further alleged that Punjab had imposed an undeclared restriction on the movement of wheat and flour to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He claimed that attempts to transport wheat from Sindh through Balochistan had also encountered obstacles. According to Aslam, Chief Minister Suhail Afridi, the provincial government and the chief secretary had repeatedly raised the issue with both the federal and Punjab governments.

He said the provincial Finance Department had released Rs15.6 billion to the Food Department for wheat procurement. He added that the supply of 150,000 tonnes of wheat from the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would begin shortly, while a further agreement had been finalised for an additional 50,000 tonnes.

Aslam said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa produced only about 25 per cent of its annual wheat requirement, making it heavily dependent on supplies from Punjab. He added that provincial wheat stocks were expected to exceed 350,000 tonnes, fully utilising the storage capacity of government warehouses. According to him, these would be the largest wheat reserves in the province’s history, accumulated without resorting to borrowing.

He also said Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah and Secretary Food Shah Mahmood were working to stabilise prices by supplying 70,000 tonnes of wheat to the private sector.

Concluding his statement, Aslam claimed Pakistan had never experienced such a severe wheat crisis within the first three months of the wheat season during its 78-year history.