RAWALPINDI: As Rawalpindi and Islamabad remained in the grip of hot weather, the Met Office has forecast gusty winds with rain in some parts of Potohar region and upper parts of the country on Sunday (today).

The Met Office had also predicted rain for the Potohar region on Saturday, but the twin cities sizzled at 41°C, with only Murree receiving 3mm rain.

An official of the Met Office said a shallow westerly wave remained present over the western and upper parts of the country while moist currents from Arabian sea were penetrating the central and north-eastern parts of the country.

He said mainly very hot and dry weather was expected in most plain areas of the country. Gusty/dust-raising winds are expected in central and southern Punjab as well as upper Sindh with rain-wind/thunderstorm in upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Islamabad, Potohar region, upper Punjab and upper/central Balochistan in the afternoon or evening.

The Met Office recorded 3mm rain in Murree and 2mm in Muzaffarabad city, Kalam and Babusar.

The highest maximum temperature was recorded in Sibbi at 47 degrees while Bhakkar and Dadu sizzled at 46°C.

Meanwhile, residents of the garrison city suffered from water shortage in the hotweather.

Arya Mohallah, Dhoke Khabba, Dhoke Kashmirian, Shamsabad, Sir Syed Chowk and other localities remained in the grip of water shortage.

Suhail Imran, a resident of Dhoke Khabba, said water shortage had become a routine during summer thanks to the apathy of Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa).

Mohammad Nauman, a resident of Lal Kurti, voiced a similar complaint. The area residents have been without water for the last two days but the Chaklala Cantonment Board has been doing nothing to resolve the issue, Nauman said.

Fayyaz Ahmed, a resident of Qasim Market, said water was enough in the dams and tubewells were working but there was a need to improve the water supply system, adding that tubewell operators opened the supply for selected areas round the clock and ignored the low-paid salaried class areas.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2022