Latest news with #Sindh
Asharq Al-Awsat
3 days ago
- Climate
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Rain, Storms in Pakistan Kill 32 in a Week
At least 32 people have been killed and more than 150 injured in Pakistan in a week of storms that followed a heatwave, with officials reporting on Friday five more deaths. Five people including a child were killed on Thursday in different districts of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during heavy rains and strong winds, the province's disaster management authority said, according to AFP. Stormy weather is expected to continue in northern and central parts of Pakistan until Saturday, according to the national meteorological office. Heavy windstorms killed 10 people on Tuesday and 14 on Saturday in different parts of the country, one of the most vulnerable to climate change and grappling with increasingly frequent extreme weather events. Three children were killed on Wednesday in Hyderabad in Sindh province, a senior official said. While the majority of the deaths were caused by collapsing walls and roofs, at least two people died after being hit by solar panels dislodged by the whipping gusts. People are killed every year in Pakistan by intense storms, which were unusually frequent this month.
CNA
3 days ago
- Climate
- CNA
Rain, storms in Pakistan kill 32 in a week
KARACHI: At least 32 people have been killed and more than 150 injured in Pakistan in a week of storms that followed a heatwave, with officials reporting on Friday (May 30) five more deaths. Five people including a child were killed on Thursday in different districts of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during heavy rains and strong winds, the province's disaster management authority said. Stormy weather is expected to continue in northern and central parts of Pakistan until Saturday, according to the national meteorological office. Heavy windstorms killed 10 people on Tuesday and 14 on Saturday in different parts of the country, one of the most vulnerable to climate change and grappling with increasingly frequent extreme weather events. Three children were killed on Wednesday in Hyderabad in Sindh province, a senior official said. While the majority of the deaths were caused by collapsing walls and roofs, at least two people died after being hit by solar panels dislodged by the whipping gusts. People are killed every year in Pakistan by intense storms, which were unusually frequent this month. Heatwaves in May followed an unusually warm April and a very dry winter.
Telegraph
5 days ago
- General
- Telegraph
Banning child marriage is un-Islamic, Pakistani government told
Banning child marriage is un-Islamic, Pakistan's government was told after setting 18 as the minimum age to marry. Its Child Marriage Restraint Bill, unanimously passed by both houses of the country's parliament, seeks to protect the rights of children and eventually eradicate child marriage. Any form of co-habitation between adults and minors will be deemed statutory rape and punished by up to seven years in prison and a fine of no less than 1 million Pakistani rupees (£2,663). But the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), which advises the government on theological issues, said it rejected the bill because classifying marriage under the age of 18 as rape did not conform with Islamic law. Child marriage should be discouraged but the Bill 'has been declared un-Islamic', it said on Wednesday. Replacing colonial legislation Despite the CII's opposition, the Bill is to be signed into law in the coming days by Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan's president. It will replace British colonial-era legislation that set the legal age of marriage for boys to 18 and girls at 16, although many Pakistani children continue to be coerced into underage marriages. The new legislation will apply to Islamabad, the capital, but politicians and activists hope to roll out similar laws to other areas of the country in the future. A similar Bill was passed in Sindh province over a decade ago. The CII's verdict is unlikely to prevent the law's enactment in Islamabad but it could increase opposition to future legislation in more religious areas. Pakistan has one of the highest rates of underage marriage in the world, with nearly 30 million women – roughly 30 per cent of the female population – wed before the age of 18. Girls Not Brides, a global coalition aiming to end child marriage, has reported that 4 per cent of Pakistani girls and 5 per cent of Pakistani boys marry before the age of 15. Domestic violence and health problems During the parliamentary debate, Naseema Ehsan, 50, a senator, shared her personal story of being married at 13 and said she wanted the practice banned. Those married as children are statistically the most likely to drop out of school, and are reported to often face domestic violence, or health complications, particularly with underage pregnancies. Dr Ifrah Aslam, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist in Mumbai, said: 'These girls are still growing themselves; their bodies aren't ready to carry a pregnancy.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Pakistan sends ‘important signal' of hope in a gloomy world of pushbacks on women's rights
During last week's tense debate over whether the Pakistan senate should pass a bill banning child marriage, Naseema Ehsan stood up to speak. 'I got married at 13 years old and I want child marriage to be banned,' said the 50-year-old senator. 'I was lucky to have good and affluent in-laws but most Pakistani women are not so lucky. Not every child has a supportive husband like me.' When she finished talking, there was applause in the chamber. Despite fierce opposition, later that day the bill banning child marriage in Pakistan's capital city, Islamabad, was passed. It will be signed into law by the president in the coming days and replace legislation introduced under British colonial rule. The landmark parliamentary vote comes more than a decade after a similar bill was passed in Sindh province. Senators, civil society organisations and activists hope that because this latest bill was passed by both houses of Pakistan's legislature, other regions will follow suit, eventually outlawing child marriage throughout the country. 'This bill sends a powerful message,' says Sherry Rehman, the politician who tabled the bill in the senate after Sharmila Farooqi introduced it in Pakistan's lower house, the national assembly. 'It's a very important signal to the country, to our development partners, and to women that their rights are protected at the top.' Under the new legislation, the minimum age for marriage is 18 for both males and females in the capital, with underage marriage now a criminal offence. Previously, it was 16 for girls but 18 for boys. Strict punishments, including up to seven years in prison, have been introduced for people – including family members, clerics and registrars – who facilitate or coerce children into early marriage. Any sexual relations within a marriage involving a minor – with or without consent – will be deemed statutory rape, while an adult man found to have married a girl could face up to three years in prison. It is a moment of hope in an increasingly gloomy landscape for women's rights globally, according to Jamshed Kazi, Pakistan's representative for UN Women. 'This particular passage [of the bill] is even more significant because it's happening in the wake of counter-currents,' he says. 'We are seeing a global pushback on women's rights and even a renegotiation of issues that were settled maybe 30 years ago. Countries are challenging the use of gender-responsive language, and even sexual and reproductive health and rights.' In Pakistan, 29% of girls are married by 18 , according to a 2018 demographic survey, and that 4% marry before the age of 15 compared with 5% for boys, according to Girls Not Brides, a global coalition aiming to end child marriage. The country is among the top 10 worldwide with the highest absolute number of women who were married or in a union before the age of 18. Girls who marry are less likely to finish school and are more likely to face domestic violence, abuse and health problems. Pregnancies become higher risk for child brides, with a greater chance of fistulas, sexually transmitted infections or even death. Teenagers are more likely to die from complications during childbirth than women in their 20s. Ehsan knows only too well the dangers facing girls who are married early. She had her first child at 15. 'I had complications during pregnancy,' she told the Guardian. 'Doctors told me I was weak because I was very young – a child. My health, and my daughter's health, were affected,' she says. Her in-laws could afford medical care and she had three more children in consecutive years. She dropped out of school but her husband allowed her to continue her studies privately. 'At 20, I came to the realisation that I should have finished my studies and waited till 19, at least, to become a mother. I would have been able to take care of my children more,' she says. Since then, she has seen many cases of child brides dying in childbirth in her home province of Balochistan, where girls can get married at 16. A woman dies due to pregnancy complications in Pakistan every 50 minutes. 'I've never been so content to vote for a bill as the child marriage restraint bill,' she adds. 'The world has changed and developed. We have progressed and we must embrace the progress … It was a very much needed bill.' It has been 'a long time coming', according to Kazi, and is the result of more than a decade of advocacy by civil society and rights organisations. Rehman says it follows three attempts over seven years to get a ban passed, with previous bills falling victim to parliamentary inertia as well as religious opposition. 'It has been difficult to go through various stages and jump through hoops, and to keep making amendments,' she adds. 'To see it defeated repeatedly, or not even make the agenda because there was opposition in the National Assembly, has been one of the most difficult parts of this journey.' Some religious and political leaders have threatened to protest against the bill, claiming it is 'unIslamic', that marriage must be a family decision and that puberty should mark the age a girl can be married. 'We should not be forcing the age of child marriage. Parents should decide that and children should consent to it,' says Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, secretary general of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl political party. 'In Britain and western societies, during adulthood they have relations and partners, and they have sex and then do abortion and waste their children. Why don't Pakistani liberals and civil society and even the west see that and introduce laws over there? 'This new law is unacceptable and unbearable,' he says. 'We will decide our course of action.' Nadeem Afzal Chan, information secretary of the Pakistan People's party – which is in power in Sindh and Balochistan provinces – refutes such claims. 'We must celebrate this bill as it protects the rights of children,' he says. 'The Balochistan government soon will enact laws to ban child marriages.'
The Independent
7 days ago
- Climate
- The Independent
Storms kill 14 in Pakistan and flooding sparks chaos in Mumbai as early monsoon batters South Asia
At least 14 people were killed in Pakistan after powerful windstorms struck Sindh over the weekend, while India 's financial capital of Mumbai faced flash flooding and travel chaos as monsoon rains arrived early following weeks of punishing heat in the region. The deaths in Pakistan occurred as strong winds and thunderstorms swept through southern districts of the Sindh province on Saturday evening, causing homes to collapse and trees to fall. Several deaths were also reported in the Punjab province as extreme wind gusts toppled trees, downed electricity poles, and damaged infrastructure, including in the capital Islamabad. Officials said several of the victims were children. Over 100 were reported injured. The storms, described as 'particularly destructive' by officials, followed a period of extreme heat when temperatures soared above 45C. In India, which was also reeling from high temperatures, the monsoon arrived a week early and rains flooded several parts of Mumbai on Monday, disrupting road traffic and delaying flights. A 24-hour red alert has been issued for Mumbai, Thane, Ratnagiri, and Raigad districts in the western state of Maharashtra. One person died in a lightning strike in Raigad while 48 people were rescued from inundated areas, district authorities said. Photos and videos shared online showed knee-deep water in low-lying areas as the rains disrupted transport, rail and flight services. Some parts of Mumbai received over 200 mm of rainfall, more than what London typically receives in an entire month. The national capital Delhi is experiencing its wettest May on record. An overnight storm this weekend caused waterlogging in many parts of the city. Studies in the past have shown that extreme heat can play a role in intensifying rainfall. The monsoon system in the Indian subcontinent is increasingly marked by such extremes – longer dry spells followed by sudden, intense bursts of rain.
