KARACHI: Sukkur Barrage — capacity of 9,00,000 cusecs — recorded an incredible discharge of 12,00,132 cusecs at 7 p.m. yesterday [Aug 16] as the tail of the 250-mile long peak of the monsoon ‘super flood’ passed Guddu earlier in the day at 2 a.m. On the other hand, irrigation engineers made 13 cuts on Nara Canal … about 115 miles downstream its head in a bid to relieve pressure on the canal itself and to save the irrigation system lower down and other inhabited areas.

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from Peshawar,] Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto today [Aug 16] began a three-day tour of the rain and flood-devastated areas of the North-West Frontier Province assuring the sufferers that his Government was all-out to help them recover from the calamity. Addressing the stricken people at different places he told them that they would be provided all possible relief in addition to the concessions and grants already announced by him. … Flying by an Army helicopter from Rawalpindi the [PM], in over five hours, made aerial inspection of the affected areas of Campbellpur District of Punjab … and [NWFP’s] Peshawar and Mardan districts.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2026