Perched on her neighbour’s rooftop, Ghulam Bano gazes down at the remains of her home, submerged in murky, foul-smelling floodwater that has engulfed much of Punjab.

Monsoon rains this week swelled three transboundary rivers that cut through Punjab, the country’s agricultural heartland and home to nearly half of its 255 million people.

Bano moved to Shahdara last year, on the outskirts of Lahore, to avoid the choking smog pollution of Pakistan’s second-largest city, only to have her new beginning overturned by raging floods.

“My husband had started coughing blood and his condition just kept getting worse when the smog hit,” Bano told AFP, walking through muddy streets.

“I thought the smog was bad enough — I never thought it could be worse with the floods,” she said.

Read more here.

 A doctor checks an evacuated resident from her submerged home, as she takes shelter at a government school after floodwaters entered from the overflowing Ravi river in Shahdara, Lahore on August 29, 2025. — AFP
A doctor checks an evacuated resident from her submerged home, as she takes shelter at a government school after floodwaters entered from the overflowing Ravi river in Shahdara, Lahore on August 29, 2025. — AFP

Opinion

Editorial

Budget presser
14 Jun, 2026

Budget presser

OFFICIAL post-budget media briefings in Pakistan are carefully choreographed affairs, full of reassuring phrases ...
Muharram precautions
14 Jun, 2026

Muharram precautions

WITH Muharram due to start next week, the authorities have already begun annual exercises to ensure that the ...
Blood bequests
14 Jun, 2026

Blood bequests

WORLD Blood Donor Day offers a moment of “gratitude, advocacy and renewed commitment” for thalassaemia patients...
Sustainable path?
Updated 13 Jun, 2026

Sustainable path?

The FY27 budget is the first clear signal that the government is ready to transition from stabilisation to growth.
Prioritising education
13 Jun, 2026

Prioritising education

THOUGH the improvement in the country’s literacy rate may be slight, as highlighted by the Economic Survey, it ...
Poverty’s rise
13 Jun, 2026

Poverty’s rise

AS attention turns to the government’s plans for the coming fiscal year, one set of figures deserves particular...