The World Bank said it will provide about $2 billion in aid to Pakistan, ravaged by floods that have killed more than 1,600 people this year, the largest pledge of assistance so far.

Unprecedented monsoon rains and flooding this year — which many experts attribute to climate change — have also injured some 13,000 people across the country since mid-June. The floods have displaced millions and destroyed crops, half a million homes and thousands of kilometers (miles) of roads.

The World Bank’s vice president for South Asia, Martin Raiser, announced the pledge in an overnight statement after concluding his first official visit to the country Saturday.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of lives and livelihoods due to the devastating floods and we are working with the federal and provincial governments to provide immediate relief to those who are most affected,” he said.

Raiser met with federal ministers and the chief minister of southern Sindh province, the most affected region, where he toured the badly hit Dadu district.

Thousands of makeshift medical camps for flood survivors have been set up in the province, where the National Disaster Management Authority said outbreaks of typhoid, malaria and dengue fever have killed at least 300 people.

The death toll prompted the World Health Organization last week to raise the alarm about a “second disaster,” with doctors on the ground racing to battle outbreaks.

“As an immediate response, we are repurposing funds from existing World Bank-financed projects to support urgent needs in health, food, shelter, rehabilitation and cash transfers,” Raiser said.

The World Bank agreed last week in a meeting with Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly to provide $850 million in flood relief for Pakistan. The $2 billion figure includes that amount.

Raiser said the bank is working with provincial authorities to begin as quickly as possible repairing infrastructure and housing and “restore livelihoods, and to help strengthen Pakistan’s resilience to climate-related risks. We are envisaging financing of about $2 billion to that effect.”

Over the past two months, Pakistan has sent nearly 10,000 doctors, nurses and other medical staff to tend to survivors in Sindh province.
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At least 23 people were killed and several dozen more were missing on Sunday after a boat capsized in a river in Bangladesh, police said.

“We have recovered 23 bodies. Firefighters and divers are searching for more bodies,” local police official Shafiqul Islam told AFP.

The boat was packed with up to 50 Hindu pilgrims, police said.

They were travelling to a centuries-old temple when the vessel suddenly tipped over and sank in the middle of the Karotoa river near the town of Boda in northern Bangladesh.

Another police officer said up to 25 people were still missing.

Boat tragedies caused by poor maintenance and overcrowding are common in Bangladesh, a poor nation crisscrossed by rivers.
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Sprawling coastal cities in South and Southeast Asia are sinking faster than elsewhere in the world, leaving tens of millions of people more vulnerable to rising sea levels, a new study says. 

Rapid urbanization has seen these cities draw heavily on groundwater to service their burgeoning populations, according to research by Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, published in the journal Nature Sustainability last week.  

“This puts cities experiencing rapid local land subsidence at greater risk of coastal hazards than already present due to climate-driven sea-level rise,” the study says. 

Vietnam’s most populous urban center and main business hub, Ho Chi Minh City, was sinking an average of 16.2 millimeters (0.6 inches) annually, topping the study’s survey of satellite data from 48 large coastal cities around the world. 

The southern Bangladeshi port of Chittagong was second on the list, with the western Indian city Ahmedabad, Indonesian capital Jakarta and Myanmar’s commercial hub Yangon also sinking more than 20 millimeters in peak years.  

“Many of these fast-subsiding coastal cities are rapidly expanding megacities, where … high demands for groundwater extraction and loading from densely constructed building structures, contribute to local land subsidence,” the study says. 

Sinking cities are not of themselves a result of climate change, but researchers said their work would give a better insight into how the phenomenon would “compound the effects of climate-driven mean sea-level rise.” 

More than 1 billion people will live in coastal cities at risk of rising sea levels by 2050, according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  

The IPCC says that global sea levels could rise by up to 60 centimeters (24 inches) by the end of the century, even if greenhouse gas emissions are sharply reduced. 

 
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A new report has found Pakistan to be among five countries across the world “least resilient” to the effects of natural disasters, as the South Asian nation grapples with the catastrophic flooding and ensuing emergencies.

The report from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll released this week is based on interviews from more than 125,000 people, conducted by Gallup, in 121 countries last year to assess vulnerability in a changing climate.

Heavy seasonal rainfall, made worse by global climate change, triggered the floods in Pakistan, a country of about 220 million people. The United Nations and local officials say the disaster has claimed the lives of some 1,600 people, including at least 575 children, affected 33 million people and drenched larges parts of Pakistan, especially the southern Sindh province, since mid-June.

With flooding worsening since the poll was conducted, the international survey released this week by the United Kingdom-based independent global charity raises concerns around Pakistan’s ability to cope with and recover from such disasters.

The study noted that three in five Pakistanis (60%) who had experienced a disaster said it was caused by heavy rain or flooding, well above the global average of 37%.

Additionally, many of the country’s 220 million residents had gone without vital resources for more than a day in the 12 months prior to the survey – almost three-quarters or 71% said they had gone without electricity. More than a third (36%) said they had been unable to access medical assistance or medicine, and 42% said they had been unable to access a telephone.

Sarah Cumbers, the director of evidence and insight at the British charity said the countries that are most exposed to the effects of natural hazards are often those most lacking in the means to cope with and recover from such events.

Cumbers said their research can draw policymakers’ attention to the types of support they must bolster to improve resilience in the face of potential future disasters.

“If they fail to do so, the lives and wellbeing of even more people will be put at risk over the years to come,” she said in the report.

Looming health crisis

The United Nations says the seasonal monsoon downpours “have broken a century-long record” and dumped more than five times the 30-year average for rainfall in some parts of Pakistan, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. Many of them remain in dire straits in in need of lifesaving humanitarian assistance.

Humanitarian agencies are racing to provide emergency aid to flood victims, but officials say numerous roads and bridges have been washed away or damaged, cutting off access to population in hardest hit areas.

Officials in Sindh said Friday they had deployed thousands of additional doctors and paramedics in the province to contain the spread of waterborne and other diseases that have killed more than 300 flood victims over the past two months.

An estimated 3.4 million children have been uprooted from their homes and are grappling to survive.

The United Nations has warned that outbreaks of diarrhea, typhoid and malaria are increasing rapidly as millions of flood victims sleep in temporary shelters or in the open near stagnating water.

“A second disaster is looming in sight – health, nutrition and water, sanitation and hygiene – are of critical concern,” a U.N. statement said Wednesday.

Pakistani officials have reported more than 134,000 cases of diarrhea and 44,000 cases of malaria in Sindh this past week.

Cargo planes carrying relief supplies and medicines have arrived in Pakistan from dozens of countries, including China, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.

“What the world has done is commendable, but it is far from meeting our needs. We can’t do it alone,” Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said in an interview with Bloomberg TV that aired Friday.

Sharif is due to address the U.N. General Assembly later Friday in New York, where he is expected to highlight the devastation caused by floods in Pakistan and call for more international support to help his country deal with the catastrophe.
…

Standing in line to try to buy food, Rekha Begum is distraught. Like many others in Bangladesh, she is struggling to find affordable daily essentials like rice, lentils and onions.

“I went to two other places, but they told me they don’t have supplies. Then I came here and stood at the end of the queue,” said Begum, 60, as she waited for nearly two hours to buy what she needed from a truck selling food at subsidized prices in the capital, Dhaka.

Bangladesh’s economic miracle is under severe strain as fuel price hikes amplify public frustrations over rising costs for food and other necessities. Fierce opposition criticism and small street protests have erupted in recent weeks, adding to pressures on the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which has sought help from the International Monetary Fund to safeguard the country’s finances.

Experts say Bangladesh’s predicament is nowhere nearly as severe as Sri Lanka’s, where months’ long unrest led its long-time president to flee the country and people are enduring outright shortages of food, fuel and medicines, spending days in queues for essentials. But it faces similar troubles: excessive spending on ambitious development projects, public anger over corruption and cronyism and a weakening trade balance.

Such trends are undermining Bangladesh’s impressive progress, fueled largely by its success as a garment manufacturing hub, toward becoming a more affluent, middle-income country.

The government raised fuel prices by more than 50% last month to counter soaring costs due to high oil prices, triggering protests over the rising cost of living. That led authorities to order the subsidized sales of rice and other staples by government-appointed dealers.

The latest phase of the program, which began Sept. 1, should help about 50 million people, said Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi.

“The government has taken a number of measures to reduce pressures on low-income earners. That is impacting the market and keeping prices of daily commodities competitive,” he said.

The policies are a stopgap for bigger global and domestic challenges.

The war in Ukraine has pushed higher prices of many commodities at a time when they already were surging as demand recovered with a waning of the coronavirus pandemic. In the meantime, countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Laos — among many — have seen their currencies weaken against the dollar, adding to the costs for dollar-denominated imports of oil and other goods.

To ease the strain on public finances and foreign reserves, the authorities put a moratorium on big, new projects, cut office hours to save energy and imposed limits on imports of luxury goods and non-essential items, such as sedans and SUVs.

“The Bangladesh economy is facing strong headwinds and turbulence,” said Ahmad Ahsan, an economist and director of the Dhaka-based Policy Research Institute, a think tank. “Suddenly we are back to the era of rolling power cuts, with the taka and the forex reserves under pressure,” he said.

Millions of low-income Bangladeshis, like Begum, whose family of five can barely afford to eat fish or meat even once a month, still struggle to put food on the table.

Bangladesh has made huge strides in the past two decades in growing its economy and fighting poverty. Investments in garment manufacturing have provided jobs for tens of millions of workers, mostly women. Exports of apparel and related products account for more than 80% of its exports.

But with fuel costs so high, authorities shut diesel-run power plants that produced at least 6% of total production, cutting daily power generation by 1,500 megawatts and disrupting manufacturing.

Imports in the last fiscal year, ending in June, 2022, rose to $84 billion, while exports have fluctuated, leaving a record current account deficit of $17 billion.

More challenges are ahead.

Deadlines are fast approaching for repaying foreign loans related to at least 20 mega infrastructure projects, including the $3.6 billion River Padma bridge built by China and a nuclear power plant mostly funded by Russia. Experts say Bangladesh needs to prepare for when repayment schedules ramp up between 2024 and 2026.

In July, in a move economists view as a precautionary measure, Bangladesh sought a $4.5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, becoming the third country in South Asia to recently seek its help after Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Finance Minister A.H.M. Mustafa Kamal said that the government asked the IMF to begin formal negotiations on loans “for balance of payments and budgetary assistance.” The IMF said it was working with Bangladesh to draw up a plan.

Bangladesh’s foreign reserves have been falling, potentially undermining its ability to meet its loan obligations. By Wednesday they had dropped to $36.9 billion from $45.5 billion a year earlier, according to the central bank.

Usable foreign reserves would be about $30 billion, said Zahid Hussain, a former chief economist of the World Bank’s Dhaka office.

“I would not say this is a crisis situation. This is still enough to meet three months of imports, three and half months of imports. But it also means that … you do not have a lot of room for maneuvering on the reserve front,” he said.

Still, despite what some economists say is excessive spending on some costly projects, Bangladesh is better equipped to weather hard times than some other countries in the region.

Its farm sector — tea, rice and jute are major exports — is an effective “shock absorber,” and its economy, four to five times larger than Sri Lanka’s, is less vulnerable to outside calamities like a downturn in tourism.

The economy is forecast to grow at a 6.6% pace this fiscal year, according to the Asia Development Bank’s latest forecast, and the country’s total debt is still relatively small.

“I think in the current context, the most important difference between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh is the debt burden, particularly the external debt,” said Hussain.

Bangladesh’s external debt is under 20% of its gross domestic product, while Sri Lanka’s was around 126% in the first quarter of 2022.

“So, we have some space. I mean debt as a source of stress on the macroeconomy is not much of a much problem yet,” he said.

Waiting in a line to buy subsidized food, 48-year-old Mohammed Jamal said he was not feeling such leeway for his own family.

“It has become unbearable trying to maintain our standard of living,” Jamal said. “Prices are just out of reach for the common people,” he said. “It’s tough living this way.”
…

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie on Wednesday joined Pakistan in pushing the international community to step up aid for victims of the country’s historic flooding, which has affected roughly 33 million people. 

“I’ve never seen anything like this. … I am overwhelmed,” said Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a day after visiting flood-ravaged areas in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province. 

The United Nations says the catastrophic deluges triggered by erratic rainfall have killed nearly 1,600 people, including 560 children, since mid-June when seasonal monsoon rains began. An estimated 3.4 million children have been uprooted from their homes and are grappling to survive.  

Jolie warned that “too many children” are malnourished and people are in need of urgent aid.  

“If enough aid doesn’t come, they won’t be here in the next few weeks,” she warned during her visit to the National Flood Response Coordination Center in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. “I am absolutely with you in pushing the international community to do more.” 

Pakistani and U.N. officials say monsoon rainfall, made worse by global climate change, led to flash floods in the mountainous parts of the country and widespread flooding in the plains, submerging one-third of Pakistan under water. Officials have warned that floodwaters could take months to recede.  

The catastrophic flooding has prompted calls for the international community to come together and work toward climate change mitigation. 

“I think this is a real wake-up call to the world about where we are at, and that climate change is not only real and it’s not only coming, it’s very much here,” Jolie emphasized.  

On Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden, while discussing climate change in his address to the U.N. General Assembly, highlighted Pakistan’s floods. 

“We all know we’re already living in a climate crisis. No one seems to doubt it after this past year. As we meet, much of Pakistan is still underwater; it needs help,” Biden said.  

Pakistan contributes less than 1% of global carbon emissions, but it is listed as one of the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis. Islamabad has urged rich countries to pay climate reparations.  

In the meantime, cargo planes from dozens of countries have brought relief supplies and medicines to Pakistan over the past month.  

The United Nations has warned that outbreaks of diarrhea, typhoid and malaria are increasing rapidly as millions of flood victims sleep in temporary shelters or in the open near stagnating water.  

More than 134,000 cases of diarrhea and 44,000 cases of malaria were reported in the hardest-hit area of Sindh this past week, a U.N. statement said Wednesday.

“A second disaster is looming in sight – health, nutrition and water, sanitation and hygiene” are of critical concern, it warned.  

U.N. officials say large parts of Pakistan’s flood-affected areas are still submerged and thousands of families in the 82 affected districts are still cut off and have yet to receive any form of aid. 

Pakistan estimates the flooding has cost it more than $30 billion in damage, as homes, roads and entire communities have been washed away. The flooding has destroyed more than 3.5 million acres of arable land, raising fears it will exacerbate food insecurity issues across the country of about 220 million people.

France will host an international conference later this year on “climate-resilient reconstruction” of Pakistan’s flood-ravaged areas, the foreign ministry in Islamabad said Wednesday after a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the 77th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. 
…

Displaced by some of the worst flooding in years, hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis now face the threat of disease. Infections are on the rise due to unsanitary conditions, and health facilities damaged by historic rains are struggling to cope. VOA’s Sarah Zaman has more.
…

Taliban authorities have allowed the reopening of a nongovernment school in the western Afghan province of Herat, where young girls will learn computer coding. The school was closed in the aftermath of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan last year.

More than 350 students have already applied to enroll at the school, but only 200 will be admitted to a one-year graphic design program that will start at the end of September, according to Fereshteh Forough, founder and CEO of Code to Inspire, a nongovernmental organization that runs the first female coding school in Afghanistan.

“On average, our students are 18 to 25 years of age,” Forough told VOA, adding that the program’s monthly costs of $60 per student plus expenses will be paid by Code to Inspire.

While the NGO has been active in Afghanistan since 2015, it had to renew its registration under the new Taliban regime to reopen the school.

The renewal process was challenging and riddled with bureaucratic hurdles, Forough said, but eventually resulted in a work permit for the NGO and a license to reopen the facility.

Girls’ education has seen major setbacks in Afghanistan over the past year, but the school’s reopening is not indicative of a change of Taliban policy toward education for women and girls.

It is also unclear what employment and professional growth opportunities will be available for the students after their graduation under a Taliban regime that has severely limited women’s work and learning rights.

Girls’ robotics team

Last year, nine members of the Afghanistan Girls Robotics Team fled the country after the Taliban seized power, fearing the new regime would deprive them of education and work.

Seven members of the team are still in Qatar pursuing professional training, and two of them have moved to the United States.

“This week, you are all here to propose solutions to transform education to all, but you must not forget those who [are] left behind, those who are not lucky enough to be at school at all,” Somaya Faruqi, former captain of the robotics team, told the U.N. General Assembly on Monday. “Show your solidarity with me and millions of Afghan girls.”

Now studying mechanical engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, Faruqi said most of the team members remain in Afghanistan and are unable to learn and work.

“We are trying to resume our programs and restart in-person trainings for girls inside Afghanistan,” Faruqi told VOA, adding that about 70 Afghan girls are currently enrolled in virtual learning classes.

“I want to become a good mechanical engineer and to be able to build the girls’ robotics school in Kabul, where I can be a mentor for others,” Faruqi said.

New hard-line minister

On Tuesday, the Taliban announced a new acting education minister, Habibullah Agha. Little is known about Agha, his vision for education or what his appointment could bring to a long-standing Taliban ban on secondary education for girls.

A confidant of the Taliban’s supreme leader, Agha accused the U.S. of launching a “media cold war against Afghanistan” in a speech on August 10 when he was director of the Kandahar Provincial Council. In a separate speech on August 31, Agha briefly mentioned women’s support for the Taliban’s war against the U.S., a rare acknowledgment from Taliban leaders.

VOA could not independently verify the veracity of Agha’s comments.

The Taliban are globally condemned for their harsh policies against women, including their now yearlong ban on girls’ secondary education.

Speaking at an event in support of Afghan women on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Taliban’s repression in Afghanistan is hurting not just women but also the entire country in various ways.

“Today, women could contribute $1 billion to Afghanistan’s economy if they were simply allowed to,” said Blinken, referring to economic losses resulting from gender-based labor restrictions. He said the U.S. was collaborating with Afghan women, civil society groups and private organizations to help Afghan women and girls attain their fundamental rights and acquire opportunities.

One of the poorest countries on Earth, Afghanistan has one of the highest female illiteracy rates in the world, with only 15% of Afghan women able to read and write, according to the United Nations.
…

On Thursday, a ship carrying Ukrainian grain to Afghanistan is scheduled to leave Odesa port. Earlier this week, VOA’s Myroslava Gongadze got exclusive access to the port and a vessel during the process of grain loading. VOA footage by Eugene Shynkar.
…

The United Nations reports millions of Pakistanis remain in dire straits and in need of lifesaving humanitarian assistance as they try to recover from the worst floods to hit the country in a century.

Nearly a month after catastrophic floods devastated Pakistan, large parts of the country, especially in the southern Sindh province, remain submerged under water. Officials warn it could take up to six months for flood waters to recede in the hardest-hit areas.

Humanitarian agencies are racing to provide emergency aid to many of the 33 million people affected by the floods. But numerous roads and bridges have been washed away or damaged, cutting off access to many areas.

Gerida Birukila is UNICEF’s Pakistan chief field officer in Balochistan. Speaking from the provincial capital, Quetta, she says it is not possible to reach thousands of families surrounded by stagnant water who are in desperate need of food, clean water, medicines, and other relief.

“People are unable to find dry land on the highway with the water which is full of sewage, fertilizers, mosquitos, and viruses are flying day and night. And thousands of people are at risk.”

The United Nations reports the floods have killed more than 1,500 people, including more than 550 children. It says children also account for more than 3.4-million of the 7.6 million people uprooted from their homes.

Birukila says before the floods, malnutrition was a big problem in Pakistan. Now she says many of the most vulnerable children are at greater risk of dying without proper treatment.

“Mothers who are pregnant are not able to access the right kind of care,” says Birukila. “Last week when I was out in the field, I remember a pregnant woman caught my dress and I looked and she said, look I am eight months pregnant. I am weak and it was like over 40 degrees centigrade outside. And I could see that her eyes were white, that she was, you know, anemic.”

UNICEF has been supporting the government’s relief effort from the start. Immediately following the floods, Birukila says the agency delivered water and other essential supplies to the worst affected districts. She says the agency has set up 71 mobile health camps and temporary learning centers to help children cope with trauma.

She says much more remains to be done but UNICEF is running out of money to fund its humanitarian operation. She notes less than one third of UNICEF’S $9 million appeal has been met. She is urging international donors to support this lifesaving effort. 
…

For the first time in India, a domestically-made vaccine that provides protection against cervical cancer—the second-most common type of cancer afflicting women in the country—will be accessible to the majority of the population, including the poorest, according to leading healthcare professionals.

The vaccine, Cervavac, is produced by The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. The vaccine shot is expected to launch by December this year, SII chief executive Adar Poonawalla said in a statement Tuesday.

“Cervavac will make India self-sufficient in controlling female mortality caused by cervical cancer. The government of India will induct it in the national [vaccination] program in a few months,” Poonawalla said.

The vaccine protects against the Human Papilloma Virus, the main cause of cervical cancer and a potential cause of other cancers. SSI says it will be accessible to both men and women at a price range of 200 to 400 rupees—about $2.50 to $5.

Dr. Smita Joshi, leader of the SII’s HPV vaccine study, said “The vaccine will be chiefly beneficial for girls aged 9 to 15 or women who are not yet sexually active.

“If we vaccinate adolescent girls now, its effect on reducing the cancer burden in the country will be seen within three to four decades,” she said.

According to Joshi, the effectiveness of the vaccine is lower among adult women, who will require cervical cancer screenings—preferably with an HPV test—followed by appropriate management for those who test positive for sexually transmitted HPV.

Dr. Mayoukh Kumar Chakraborty, assistant professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Kolkata’s KPC Medical College & Hospital, said even though three highly effective foreign-manufactured HPV vaccines are already available in India, the cheapest of them is priced around $35 per dose.

“So, HPV vaccination was not included in the national immunization program following its introduction in 2008,” he said.

In a statement, SII said it is offering Cervavac at a lower price because of the company’s “philanthropic philosophy” and to protect under-privileged children all over the world.

According to India’s Science and Technology Ministry, cervical cancer kills about 75,000 Indian women per year.

Science and Technology Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked awareness regarding preventative healthcare and India can now afford to start developing its own vaccines.

“Therefore, vaccination against HPV is the most promising initiative in the quest to prevent cervical cancer,” he said.

Joshi, who also leads the World Health Organization’s HPV vaccine study at Jehangir Clinical Development Center in the city of Pune, said: “The awareness about cervical cancer prevention in India, which includes vaccination and cervical cancer screening, is dismally low.”

There are many misconceptions regarding the disease, even among the educated population and healthcare providers, she said.

“It is advised that adolescent girls get HPV vaccinations, and that women between the ages of 30 to 49 get cervical cancer screenings, even if they have no symptoms,” she added.

Chakraborty, the gynecologist, said the upcoming Indian vaccine is expected to be effective.

“The country’s drug regulatory authority examined the data of Cervavac’s immunogenicity trials conducted at 13 centers across India and approved the vaccine in July. It is expected to generate a robust response in 100% of the vaccine recipients, according to the third phase of the trials,” he said.

Joshi added: “Through this initiative, the goal of eliminating cervical cancer from the country may be attainable.”

Bollywood actor Manisha Koirala, who has been an ovarian cancer survivor for ten years, thanked the Ministry of Science and Technology at the event announcing the impending launch of Cervavac.

“It is a great day for women in India and the world over, as there is life beyond cancer,” she said.
…

Pakistan’s foreign minister said Monday that recent deadly floods are a disaster on a scale the country has never experienced, and that recovery will cost at least $30 billion.

“It is said that in the story of Noah that it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, and I mean that’s the sort of scale we are looking at here,” Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said, referencing the biblical story of the man who built an ark when flood waters came.

The monsoon rains started in mid-June and continued through August. The powerful floods they triggered displaced millions of people and swept away homes and livelihoods. A third of the country has been submerged; more than 1,500 people perished.

The World Health Organization warned of a second disaster if there are outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as malaria, typhoid and cholera.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced it will send $50 million in assistance for emergency relief.

The foreign minister told VOA in an interview on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly that recovery and reconstruction will be “colossal” and cost far more — about $30 billion.

Bhutto Zardari said he was not “a huge climate activist” before the floods, but having seen it firsthand, believes global warming is an “extremely existential crisis.”

“The issue of climate change, and many other challenges that we face, can’t be handled by any one country alone,” he added. “So we look forward to working with our international partners on these pressing issues.”

That, he said, includes finding ways to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis on countries like his own that emit relatively small amounts of greenhouse gases but suffer the largest impacts.

The floods come as the country is already in the midst of a financial crisis and is feeling the impact of lost Ukrainian grain imports due to Russia’s war.

Pakistan has tried to take a neutral stance on the conflict, abstaining in a vote in the U.N. General Assembly on March 2 that overwhelmingly saw nations condemn Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.

“I think we are adamant that we don’t want to get drawn into any such conflict at this time,” Bhutto Zardari said.

His message to the international community is that dialogue and diplomacy are needed.

“We’ve just come out of an incredibly long conflict in the region after what happened in Afghanistan,” he said. “And we just don’t think this should be the age of new conflicts.”

As for neighboring Afghanistan, which the Taliban took over 13 months ago, while Islamabad engages with the de facto authorities, they have not recognized them as the official government.

“I think Pakistan, along with a lot of the international community, are looking for the interim Afghanistan government to take the appropriate steps to live up to the international obligations necessary so that this recognition process can go forward,” he said, adding that it is in the interests of the region and the world if Afghanistan achieves peace and stability.

On July 31, a U.S. drone strike killed the leader of al-Qaida, Ayman Zawahri, in a house in the center of the Afghan capital. The Taliban accused Pakistan of allowing the drones to use their airspace. Bhutto Zardari said “there’s absolutely no evidence” of this.

As for Pakistan’s other neighbor, India, he said he has no plans to meet with his counterpart in New York this week, as relations are still sour over India’s revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.
…

Waqar Satti is usually out covering Pakistan’s parliament. But accusations of blasphemy and online death threats have forced the senior political correspondent to stop work.

“I haven’t been in the field since this happened,” Satti told VOA. “I left my city, my family is worried and affected by the case, I have four children.”

Police in the city of Rawalpindi filed a case against Satti in late August over a video the Geo News senior political correspondent shared on Twitter. A First Information Report, or FIR, on the case — the preliminary stage to a criminal complaint — lists blasphemy and defamation charges.

The legal complaint says that in the video, Satti falsely attributes anti-Islamic quotes to former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Satti denied that, saying he only “compiled” interviews and statements by Khan. The video has since been deleted.

Since the case was filed, Satti has been trolled and threatened on Twitter.

“First, they used abusing language and started insulting me on Twitter. Then there were threats to kill,” said Satti. Trending hashtags labeled the journalist a blasphemer and called for him to be hanged, he told VOA.

Fearing for his safety, Satti said he had to stop work.

The journalist says Geo’s management has been sympathetic to him and asked that he “delete the tweet so the situation can cool down.”

“I don’t know what will happen, but I am determined,” said Satti. “Every other person is advising me to leave the country, but I will stay and fight the legal battle. I hope that I will get justice from the courts.”

Pakistan has some of the strictest blasphemy laws, with those convicted facing life imprisonment or even a death sentence. The accusation can also increase the risk of threats or attack.

“This is the first-ever blasphemy case against a journalist in Punjab. Also nearly 100,000 people ran a dangerous trend on social media against (Satti),” said Afzal Butt, president of the Pakistan Federal Union Journalists (PFUJ).

“We know what happens to people facing blasphemy charges in this country,” he told VOA.

While blasphemy charges are rare for the media, the wider use of legal action to retaliate against reporters is of concern to the PFUJ and other media advocates.

Coverage deemed critical of the military or Pakistan intelligence agencies, or reporting on enforced disappearances, human rights violations or the Pashtun Protection Movement—a group demanding equal rights and protections for minority Pashtuns — carry risk of threats or legal action.

VOA contacted Marriyum Aurangzeb, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, for comment. Her staff told VOA that the minister was busy and would send a response when available. As of publication, no response had arrived.

Aurangzeb however has commented on Satti’s case on social media. In an August 28 tweet, she said, “I condemn the FIR (First Information Report) against Waqar Satti by Punjab government in strongest words.”

Legal threats

The Islamabad-based journalist Asad Toor has also faced legal action and a physical attack for his work.

In September 2020, authorities accused him of “propagating against the army and the state.”

“The reason was only that I challenged the people who believe they are not answerable and unaccountable,” he told VOA.

When charges were filed, Toor says the privately owned TV channel he worked for terminated his contract.

So, he started a YouTube channel — Asad Toor Uncensored — to keep reporting.

A court in December 2020 dismissed the case due to a lack of evidence. But Toor’s ordeal was not over.

Then, in a separate incident in May 2021, three unidentified assailants came to Toor’s home, tied the journalist up, beat and threatened him.

Still, he refused to be silenced. “Whatever I had to suffer, I decided to continue it. So, I continued with the same spirit,” Toor said.

In March of this year, Islamabad police opened an investigation into the accusations that he led an unauthorized protest. That case, said Toor, “is still open.”

More harassment of the media followed elections in April, including legal action filed against four journalists deemed supportive of Khan’s government, including two from the ARY network.

In late May, legal complaints were filed against all four on accusations that they published statements to cause “public mischief” by being critical of the state or army, the Committee to Protect Journalists said at the time.

In a statement at the time, CPJ said the “blizzard of harassing” investigations “makes a mockery of (Pakistan’s) claims to uphold press freedom.”

VOA reached out to at least three of the journalists, but none responded.

Call for reform

Iqbal Khattak, head of the Pakistan-based media watchdog, the Freedom Network, said the filing of lawsuits is a tactic to ensnare journalists in lengthy disputes.

“I think that’s a new strategy on part of the state and state institutions to get you entangled in the legal battle,” Khattak told VOA. “We regard these legal cases against journalists [as] equally dangerous for press freedom in the country.”

One solution, said Khattak, is to improve media literacy. Journalists should also take steps toward a more professional and ethical approach, he said.

Butt of the PFUJ said that Pakistan’s laws make it easy for authorities to arrest journalists.

He said that the information minister has agreed with media that “there are laws that violate” Pakistan’s Constitution. Under Article 19, Pakistan guarantees freedom of expression and the press.

“We have formed a joint action committee comprising of all stakeholders and engaged with the government information ministry, the current information minister, to reform the laws,” Butt said.

Pakistan’s journalists have had some success in pushing back against reforms they believe will stifle the press.

In February, Khan’s government enacted amendments to the 2016 Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, a move they said would tackle false news.

The country’s media filed a petition, saying the change would make it easier to prosecute journalists. In a landmark decision in April, the Islamabad High Court rescinded the law as “unconstitutional.”

This story originated in VOA’s Urdu Service.
…

The Taliban Monday freed Mark Frerichs, the only American hostage remaining in Afghanistan, in exchange for a Taliban drug lord, Bashir Noorzai, who was serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison.

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told reporters in Kabul the prisoner swap between his government and a U.S. delegation took place at the Afghan capital’s airport.

Frerichs, the nearly 60-year-old American engineer and Navy veteran, was abducted in Kabul in early 2020 when the U.S. and NATO troops were battling the then-Taliban insurgency in support of the Western-backed Afghan government.

Noorzai, known as Haji Bashir, was arrested in New York in 2005 and subsequently charged with trafficking millions of dollars’ worth of heroin into the United States. The top Taliban associate reportedly helped fund and arm the insurgents with proceeds from heroin trafficking.

Muttaqi described the prisoner swap as an “unprecedented in the history of Afghanistan” and said it was the outcome of a long negotiation process between the Taliban and the U.S. He said until now prisoner swaps between the two former adversaries would take place outside Afghanistan.

“This morning at 10 a.m. the American citizen was handed over to an American team at the Kabul airport and Haji Bashir was handed over to the Islamic Emirate,” Muttaqi said, using the official name for the Taliban government.

Noorzai’s lawyer had denied his client was a drug lord and argued the charges against him should be dismissed because U.S. officials duped him into believing he would not be arrested.

International forces completely withdrew from the country in August of last year after almost two decades of war with the Taliban, paving the way for the resurgent Islamist group to seize power.

Muttaqi said he also had a “positive” meeting with the U.S. officials at the Kabul airport on different issues before the guests left Afghanistan. He did not elaborate.

Muttaqi said Monday’s development had opened a “new chapter” in relations between Afghanistan and the United States, it would also help resolve bilateral problems between the two countries through negotiations.

Critics said it was too early to say whether the prisoner exchange would lead to any change in U.S. policy in terms of dealings with the Taliban, noting that the Islamist group had for long denied they were behind the abduction of Frerichs.

“Miraculously finding him for an exchange doesn’t exactly amount to diplomacy, nor trust building with the world,” said Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan official and political commentator.

The U.S. and the world at large have not yet recognized the Taliban government over human rights and terrorism-related concerns.

Noorzai, an influential tribal leader, owned opium fields in the southern province of Kandahar and he was a close ally of Mullah Mohammad Omar, the founder leader of the Taliban.

“In 2001, after the United States began military operations in Afghanistan, Noorzai at Omar’s request, provided the Taliban” with hundreds of his fighters to battle the then-anti-Taliban alliance of Afghan groups, according to the U.S. charge sheet against him.
…

The United Nations Sunday renewed its call for Afghanistan’s Taliban to urgently reopen schools to teenage girls, denouncing the anniversary of their exclusion from education as “tragic, shameful, and entirely avoidable.”

Since taking control of the conflict-torn country in August of last year, the Islamist group has instructed girls in grades 7 to 12 to remain home, which has mainly affected girls aged between 12 and 18.

“The ongoing exclusion of girls from high school has no credible justification and has no parallel anywhere in the world,” Markus Potzel, the acting chief of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in a statement.

“It is profoundly damaging to a generation of girls and to the future of Afghanistan itself,” he said.

The Taliban reopened high schools to boys last year on September 18 but have ignored international calls for allowing female students to return to classroom. In recent days girls have also taken to the streets in some Afghan cities to protest the ban on their education.

“A year of lost knowledge and opportunity that they will never get back. Girls belong in school. The Taliban must let them back in,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote on Twitter.

The hardline Taliban rulers have also ordered women to cover their faces in public and told female staff in many public sector departments to stay home, saying the rules are in line with Afghan culture and Islamic law.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA his government is determined to resolve the problem of girls’ education within the framework of Sharia, or Islamic law.

“Whether it’s a problem with the world or not, our own people also demand the same from us. We are trying to find a positive way out,” he said.

Mujahid insisted that reopening schools to girls is an internal Afghan matter and other countries should not link the issue to establishing ties with the Taliban government.

“This is the internal problem of Afghanistan, it is the issue of our people, it is the issue of my children and my daughter. There is no room for outside intervention,” Mujahid told VOA.

The U.N. mission has estimated that the closure of female schools has barred more than 1 million girls across Afghanistan from receiving an education over the past year. It pressed the Taliban to reverse the slew of rules curbing basic rights of Afghan women and girls, saying the restrictions increase the risk of marginalization, violence exploitation and abuse against them.

“If the ban on girls attending high school remains, the U.N. is increasingly concerned that such measures, taken together with other restrictions being placed upon Afghans’ basic freedoms, will contribute to a deepening of the crises facing Afghanistan, including greater insecurity, poverty and isolation,” the statement said.

Other countries have not yet recognized the Taliban government because of its curbs on women’s and girls’ access to work and education, and for suppressing other civil liberties.

The return of the Taliban to power has deepened an already bad humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and pushed its war-hit economy to the brink of collapse.

The economic crisis, international economic sanctions and suspension of foreign financial assistance have made it difficult for the Islamist group to govern the poverty-stricken South Asian nation of about 40 million people.

More than half of the Afghan population suffers from acute hunger, according to U.N. assessments.
…

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, visiting Armenia Sunday, has condemned Azerbaijan’s recent attacks on Armenia, calling them “illegal and deadly.” More than 200 people have been killed in the border clashes.

Speaking in Yerevan, Pelosi said the U.S. supports Armenian sovereignty and wants to know what it needs to defend itself.

The U.S. lawmaker said the attacks were “initiated by the Azeris and there has to be recognition of that.”

Pelosi said the attacks on Armenia by Azerbaijan are part of a worldwide struggle between democracy and autocracy.
…

Kyrgyzstan said on Sunday its death toll from the border conflict with Tajikistan has risen to 36 people, with at least 129 wounded in fighting between the two Central Asian nations.

The former Soviet republics clashed over a border dispute on Sept. 14-16, accusing each other of using tanks, mortars, rocket artillery and assault drones to attack outposts and nearby settlements, leaving at least 54 dead.

Central Asian border issues largely stem from the Soviet era when Moscow tried to divide the region between groups whose settlements were often located amidst those of other ethnicities.

Kyrgyzstan has also said it evacuated about 137,000 evacuated from the conflict area.

Tajikistan has not given any official casualty numbers, but security sources said 30 people have been killed this week.

The two sides agreed a ceasefire on Sept. 16 which has largely held up despite several alleged incidents of shelling.
…

The United Nations urged the Taliban on Sunday to reopen high schools for girls across Afghanistan, condemning the ban that began exactly a year ago as “tragic and shameful”.

Weeks after the Taliban seized power in August last year, the hardline Islamists reopened high schools for boys on September 18, 2021, but banned secondary schoolgirls from attending classes.

Months later on March 23, the education ministry opened secondary schools for girls, but within hours the Taliban leadership ordered classes to be shut again.

Since then, more than a million teenage girls have been deprived of education across the country, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said.

“This is a tragic, shameful, and entirely avoidable anniversary,” said Markus Potzel, the acting head of UNAMA in a statement.

“It is profoundly damaging to a generation of girls and to the future of Afghanistan itself,” he said, adding the ban had no parallel in the world.

UN chief Antonio Guterres urged the Taliban to revoke the ban.

“A year of lost knowledge and opportunity that they will never get back,” Guterres said on Twitter.

“Girls belong in school. The Taliban must let them back in.”

Several Taliban officials say the ban is only temporary, but they have also wheeled out a litany of excuses for the closures — from a lack of funds to time needed to remodel the syllabus along Islamic lines.

Earlier this month, the education minister was quoted by local media as saying it was a cultural issue, as many rural people did not want their daughters to attend school.

After seizing power on August 15 last year amid a chaotic withdrawal of foreign forces, the Taliban promised a softer version of their harsh Islamist regime that ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.

But within days they began imposing severe restrictions on girls and women to comply with their austere vision of Islam — effectively squeezing them out of public life.

Apart from closing high schools for girls, the Taliban have barred women from many government jobs and ordered them to cover up in public, preferably with an all-encompassing burqa.

Some high schools for girls have remained open in provinces away from the central power bases of Kabul and Kandahar because of pressure from families and tribal leaders.
…

Seven decades after cheetahs died out in India, they’re back.

Eight big cats from Namibia made the long trek Saturday in a chartered cargo flight to the northern Indian city of Gwalior, part of an ambitious and hotly contested plan to reintroduce cheetahs to the South Asian country. 

Then they were moved to their new home: a sprawling national park in the heart of India where scientists hope the world’s fastest land animal will roam again. 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the cats into their enclosure Saturday morning. The cats emerged from their cage, tentatively at first while continuously scanning their new surroundings

“When the cheetah will run again, grasslands will be restored, biodiversity will increase and eco-tourism will get a boost,” said Modi.

Cheetahs were once widespread in India and became extinct in 1952 from hunting and loss of habitat. They remain the first and only predator to die out since India’s independence in 1947. India hopes importing African cheetahs will aid efforts to conserve the country’s threatened and largely neglected grasslands.

There are fewer than 7,000 adult cheetahs left in the wild globally, and they now inhabit less than 9% of their original range. Shrinking habitat, due to the increasing human population and climate change, is a huge threat and India’s grasslands and forests could offer “appropriate” homes for the big cat, said Laurie Marker, of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, an advocacy and research group assisting in bringing the cats to India.

“To save cheetahs from extinction, we need to create permanent places for them on earth,” she said.

Cheetah populations in most countries are declining. An exception to this is South Africa, where the cats have run out of space. Experts hope that Indian forests could offer these cats space to thrive. There are currently a dozen cheetahs in quarantine in South Africa, and they are expected to arrive at the Kuno National Park soon. Earlier this month, four cheetahs captured at reserves in South Africa were flown to Mozambique, where the cheetah population has drastically declined.

Some experts are more cautious. 

There could be “cascading and unintended consequences” when a new animal is brought to the mix, said Mayukh Chatterjee of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. 

For example, a tiger population boom in India has led to more conflict with people sharing the same space. With cheetahs, there are questions about how their presence would affect other carnivores like striped hyenas, or even prey like birds.

“The question remains: How well it’s done,” he said.

The initial eight cheetahs from Namibia will be quarantined at a facility in the national park and monitored for a month to make sure they’re not carrying pests. Then they will be released into a larger enclosure in the park to help them get used to their new environment. The enclosures contain natural prey – such as spotted deer and antelope, which scientists hope they’ll learn to hunt – and are designed to prevent other predators like bears or leopards from getting in. 

The cheetahs will be fitted with tracking collars and released into the national park in about two months. Their movements will be tracked routinely, but for the most part, they’ll be on their own. 

The reserve is big enough to hold 21 cheetahs and if they were to establish territories and breed, they could spread to other interconnected grasslands and forests that can house another dozen cheetahs, according to scientists. 

There is only one village with a few hundred families still residing on the fringes of the park. Indian officials said they’d be moved soon, and any livestock loss due to cheetahs will be compensated. The project is estimated to cost $11.5 million over five years, including $6.3 million that will be paid for by state-owned Indian Oil.

The continent-to-continent relocation has been decades in the making. The cats that originally roamed India were Asiatic cheetahs, genetically distinct cousins of those that live in Africa and whose range stretched to Saudi Arabia. 

India had hoped to bring in Asiatic cheetahs, but only a few dozen of these survive in Iran and that population is too vulnerable to move.

Many obstacles remain, including the presence of other predators in India like leopards that may compete with cheetahs, said conservation geneticist Pamela Burger of University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna.

“It would be better to conserve them now where they are than to put effort in creating new sites where the outcome is questionable,” she said. 

Dr. Adrian Tordiffe, a veterinary wildlife specialist from South Africa associated with the project, said the animals need a helping hand. He added that conservation efforts in many African countries hadn’t been as successful, unlike in India where strict conservation laws have preserved big cat populations.

“We cannot sit back and hope that species like the cheetah will survive on their own without our help,” he said.
…

The president of Kazakhstan on Saturday signed constitutional amendments that extended the presidential term to seven years and brought back the old name of the country’s capital.

The changes are among political and economic reforms that President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has called for after violent protests rocked the country in January, killing more than 200 people. The unrest was sparked by a sharp rise in fuel prices, but also reflected widespread dismay with the country’s politics, which for more than 30 years had been dominated by former President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his party.

The Kazakh parliament unanimously supported the amendments in two readings on Friday, and Tokayev signed them into law the next day. They extend the presidential term to seven years from the current five, but also bar any president from running for a second term in office. The changes also rename the country’s capital, now called Nur-Sultan, back to Astana.

Astana became the capital of Kazakhstan in 1997 when Nazarbayev, who led the country for three decades under the Soviet Union and after it gained independence in 1991, moved it there from Almaty. After he stepped down in 2019, his successor, Tokayev, moved to name it Nur-Sultan — in honor of Nazarbayev, who retained enormous influence as head of the county’s ruling party and security council.

But Tokayev removed him from those posts after the deadly unrest in January that hinged partly on dissatisfaction with the power that Nazarbayev still wielded and announced sweeping reforms.

Earlier this month, he called for an early presidential election and announced the move to bring back the old name of the country’s capital.

Tokayev has previously said that he would run in the election. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the new amendments would allow him to, but similar constitutional changes in Russia and Belarus allowed incumbent leaders to run again under the amended constitution.
…

For much of its 20-year existence, some observers have suggested the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) could become an anti-Western bloc dominated by China and Russia. The group’s Central Asian members have complex collaborative relationships with the United States and Europe, though and Uzbekistan, the host of SCO, used its chairmanship of the event held in Samarkand September 15-16 to emphasize the group is not and should not be anti-American or anti-NATO.

“During our chairmanship, we sought to intensify practical cooperation within our organization, to increase its potential and international prestige. Along with security issues, priority was given to enhancing trade, economic, and humanitarian cooperation,” Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said in his remarks at a summit covered by more than 800 journalists from around the world.

Mirziyoyev welcomed 13 leaders, from members China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia and Tajikistan. The presidents of Belarus, Iran and Mongolia attended as observers, while those from Azerbaijan and Turkey attended as invited partners.

Minsk and Teheran aim to join the group soon. Iran, which has tried but failed to gain admission for years, signed a membership memorandum with the SCO leadership, while Belarus also expressed its desire to join.

“The SCO is evolving from a regional to a global bloc,” Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko noted, arguing that his country’s interests are closely aligned with those of the SCO members. “We are very grateful for the unanimous support of our bid to join the organization as a full member,” Lukashenko said. “We can offer our transit, industrial and scientific potential, and experience in peacekeeping and multilateral diplomacy,” he added.

Iran is closer to joining, say SCO officials, pointing to the memorandum. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi denounced “American unilateralism,” calling for the expansion of free trade within the SCO, boosting financial deals and banking, making clear that Tehran views membership as a way to attempt to bypass U.S. sanctions.

Xi-Putin meeting

The most newsworthy meeting of the summit was held on the sidelines between Chinese President Xi Jinping meeting and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which the leaders pledged to respect one another’s “core interests”—a euphemism in Beijing for Russian support on issues related to Taiwan.

Chinese accounts of the meeting were vague about Xi’s pledges. The two leaders have met frequently over the years but had not done so since the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The trip to Central Asia was Xi’s first overseas venture in the years since the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020.

Putin thanked Xi for what he called a “balanced approach” regarding Ukraine, while criticizing Washington for its “ugly policies,” such as supporting Kyiv.

Xi took a more measured tone, though, saying that “in the face of changes in the world, times and history, China is willing to work with Russia to reflect the responsibility of a major country, play a leading role and inject stability into a troubled and interconnected world.”

Putin argued that Moscow and Beijing “jointly stand for forming a just, democratic and multipolar world based on international law and the central role of the United Nations, not rules invented by some who try to enforce them on others without explaining what they are.”

Yet local analysts told VOA the SCO’s fundamental goals have not been hijacked by these current events—or by the group’s two biggest members.

Ulugbek Khasanov, professor at Uzbekistan’s University of World Economy and Diplomacy, acknowledges the SCO is a complex circle of nations disagreeing with each other on many critical issues. “But they gathered in ancient Samarkand with an agenda to strengthen security, trade and innovative cooperation.”

Khasanov calls the SCO mission diverse and ever evolving, viewing its focus on climate change, food and energy security, and regional security as a positive sign of collaboration.

Taking action

Kazakh and Kyrgyz analysts shared similar insights with VOA, but they argued that members will need more tangible steps to improve the group’s potential.

These Central Asian scholars echo their governments’ desire to avoid letting the SCO become a proxy for China and Russia. The SCO must be “a just and equal platform” for all members, Khasanov, once a top communications officer in Tashkent, agrees with that intention.

“Central Asia is at the heart of this organization,” says Khasanov, “and if you want to work with the region, you must listen to Uzbekistan’s ideas and proposals, not least its position on Afghanistan.” In other words, to act locally in Central Asia, he maintains, China, Russia, and others need to reflect Central Asian priorities and agendas.

Muzaffar Djalalov, head of Inha University in Tashkent, says the SCO must be a development platform above all.

“All the members have their own interests and policies. But what’s clear is that the SCO is not a military bloc and should not be seen as a ‘scale’ balancing between the West, on the one hand, and Russia or China.”

Establishing priorities

Djalalov sees the SCO members eager to partner in areas closer to the agenda that Central Asians tend to prioritize—education, science, and health care. He cheers President Mirziyoyev’s proposals for a SCO role promoting digital literacy and information technology.

“Some SCO countries have better experience and skills. Collaboration in these fields is key for our overall development.”

International observers see Tashkent’s proposal to launch an assistance fund for Afghanistan as a significant humanitarian step.

Roli Asthana, U.N. resident coordinator in Uzbekistan, told VOA the U.N. takes seriously every initiative that brings countries together. “As President Mirziyoyev reiterated in his speech, international cooperation is absolutely critical to solving the global challenges of today.”

When asked for the U.N.’s take on the SCO summit, Asthana said, “Whether it is climate, connectivity, recovering from the pandemic, preparing for future pandemics, or people-to-people links, global challenges require international cooperation. And it was heartening to hear leaders today commit to cooperation on important issues like trade, connectivity, food security and sustainable development.”

India—notable as the only consolidated democracy among the group’s members—joined the SCO in 2017 alongside rival Pakistan, and it is the incoming chair. The two rivals stood out in Samarkand by not holding bilateral talks.
…

The World Health Organization raised the alarm Saturday about a “second disaster” in the wake of the deadly floods in Pakistan this summer, as doctors and medical workers on the ground race to battle outbreaks of waterborne and other diseases.

The floodwaters started receding this week in the worst-hit provinces but many of the displaced — now living in tents and makeshift camps — increasingly face the threat of gastrointestinal infections, dengue fever and malaria, which are on the rise. The dirty and stagnant waters have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

The unprecedented monsoon rains since mid-June, which many experts link to climate change, and subsequent flooding have killed 1,545 people across Pakistan, inundated millions of acres of land and affected 33 million people. As many as 552 children have also been killed in the floods.

“I am deeply concerned about the potential for a second disaster in Pakistan: a wave of disease and death following this catastrophe, linked to climate change, that has severely impacted vital health systems leaving millions vulnerable,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

“The water supply is disrupted, forcing people to drink unsafe water,” he said. “But if we act quickly to protect health and deliver essential health services, we can significantly reduce the impact of this impending crisis.”

The WHO chief also said that nearly 2,000 health facilities have been fully or partially damaged in Pakistan and urged donors to continue to respond generously so that more lives can be saved.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif left for New York Saturday to attend the first fully in-person gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly since the coronavirus pandemic. Sharif will appeal for more help from the international community to tackle the disaster.

Before his departure, Sharif urged philanthropists and aid agencies to donate baby food for children, along with blankets, clothes and other food items for the flood victims, saying they were desperately waiting for aid.

The southern Sindh and southwestern Baluchistan provinces have been the worst hit — hundreds of thousands in Sindh live now in makeshift homes and authorities say it will take months to completely drain the water in the province.

Nationwide, floods have damaged 1.8 million homes, washed away roads and destroyed nearly 400 bridges, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.

Imran Baluch, head of a government-run district hospital in Jafferabad, in the district of Dera Allah Yar in Baluchistan, said that out of 300 people tested daily, nearly 70% are positive for malaria.

After malaria, typhoid fever and skin infections are commonly seen among the displaced, living for weeks in unhygienic conditions, Baluch told The Associated Press.

Pediatrician Sultan Mustafa said he treated some 600 patients at a field clinic established by the Dua Foundation charity in the Jhuddo area in Sindh, mostly women and children with gastrointestinal infections, scabies, malaria or dengue.

Khalid Mushtaq, heading a team of doctors from the Alkhidmat Foundation and the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association, said they are treating more than 2,000 patients a day and were also providing kits containing a month’s supply of water-purification tablets, soaps and other items.

On Friday, the representative of the U.N. children’s agency in Pakistan, Abdullah Fadil, said after visiting Sindh’s flood-hit areas that an estimated 16 million children had been impacted by the floods. He said UNICEF was doing everything it can “to support children and families affected and protect them from the ongoing dangers of water-borne diseases.”
…

A strong earthquake of magnitude 6.4 shook southeastern Taiwan on Saturday but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The quake had a depth of 7.3 km (4.5 miles) with its epicenter in Taitung county, a sparsely populated part of the island, the Taiwan weather bureau said.

The quake could be felt across Taiwan, it said. Buildings shook briefly in the capital, Taipei.

Taiwan’s fire department said it had yet to receive any reports of damage. Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is prone to earthquakes.

More than 100 people were killed in a quake in southern Taiwan in 2016, while a 7.3 magnitude quake killed more than 2,000 people in 1999.
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed Friday to press his attack on Ukraine despite Ukraine’s latest counteroffensive and warned that Moscow could ramp up its strikes on the country’s vital infrastructure if Ukrainian forces target facilities in Russia.

Speaking to reporters Friday after attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan, Putin said the “liberation” of Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region remained Russia’s main military goal and that he sees no need to revise it.

“We aren’t in a rush,” the Russian leader said, adding that Moscow has only deployed volunteer soldiers to fight in Ukraine. Some hardline politicians and military bloggers have urged the Kremlin to follow Ukraine’s example and order a broad mobilization to beef up the ranks, lamenting Russia’s manpower shortage.

Russia was forced to pull back its forces from large swaths of northeastern Ukraine last week after a swift Ukrainian counteroffensive. Ukraine’s move to reclaim control of several Russian-occupied cities and villages marked the largest military setback for Moscow since its forces had to retreat from areas near the capital early in the war.

In his first comment on the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Putin said: “Let’s see how it develops and how it ends.”

He noted that Ukraine has tried to strike civilian infrastructure in Russia and “we so far have responded with restraint, but just yet.”

“If the situation develops this way, our response will be more serious,” Putin said.

“Just recently, the Russian armed forces have delivered a couple of impactful strikes,” he said in an apparent reference to Russian attacks earlier this week on power plants in northern Ukraine and a dam in the south. “Let’s consider those as warning strikes.”

He alleged, without offering specifics, that Ukraine has attempted to launch attacks “near our nuclear facilities, nuclear power plants,” adding that “we will retaliate if they fail to understand that such methods are unacceptable.”

Russia has reported numerous explosions and fires at civilian infrastructure in areas near Ukraine, as well munitions depots and other facilities. Ukraine has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks and refrained from commenting on others.

Putin also sought Friday to assuage India’s concern about the conflict in Ukraine, telling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Moscow wants to see a quick end to the fighting and alleging that Ukrainian officials won’t negotiate.

“I know your stand on the conflict in Ukraine and the concerns that you have repeatedly voiced,” the Russian leader told Modi. “We will do all we can to end that as quickly as possible. Regrettably, the other side, the leadership of Ukraine, has rejected the negotiations process and stated that it wants to achieve its goals by military means, on the battlefield.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says it’s Russia that allegedly doesn’t want to negotiate in earnest. He also has insisted on the withdrawal of Russian troops from occupied areas of Ukraine as a precondition for talks.

Putin’s remarks during the talks with Modi echoed comments the Russian leader made during Thursday’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping when Putin thanked him for his government’s “balanced position” on the Ukraine war, while adding that he was ready to discuss China’s unspecified “concerns” about Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Putin said he and Xi “discussed what we should do in the current conditions to efficiently counter unlawful restrictions” imposed by the West. The European Union, the United States and other Western nations have put sanctions on Russian energy due to the war in Ukraine.

Xi, in a statement released by his government, expressed support for Russia’s “core interests” but also interest in working together to “inject stability” into world affairs. China’s relations with Washington, Europe, Japan and India have been strained by disputes about technology, security, human rights and territory.

Zhang Lihua, an international relations expert at Tsinghua University, said the reference to stability “is mainly related to China-U.S. relations,” adding that “the United States has been using all means to suppress China, which forced China to seek cooperation with Russia.”

China and India have refused to join Western sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine while increasing their purchases of Russian oil and gas, helping Moscow offset the financial restrictions imposed by the U.S. and its allies.

Putin also met Friday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss bolstering economic cooperation and regional issues, including a July deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations that allowed Ukrainian grain exports to resume from the country’s Black Sea ports.

Speaking at the Uzbekistan summit on Friday, Xi warned his Central Asian neighbors not to allow outsiders to destabilize them. The warning reflects Beijing’s anxiety that Western support for democracy and human rights activists is a plot to undermine Xi’s ruling Communist Party and other authoritarian governments.

“We should prevent external forces from instigating a color revolution,” Xi said in a speech to the leaders of Shanghai Cooperation Organization member nations, referring to protests that toppled unpopular regimes in the former Soviet Union and the Middle East.

Xi offered to train 2,000 police officers, to set up a regional counterterrorism training center and to “strengthen law enforcement capacity building.” He did not elaborate.

His comments echoed longtime Russian grievances about the color-coded democratic uprisings in several ex-Soviet nations that the Kremlin viewed as instigated by the U.S. and its allies.

Xi is promoting a “Global Security Initiative” announced in April following the formation of the Quad by the U.S., Japan, Australia and India in response to Beijing’s more assertive foreign policy. U.S. officials complain it echoes Russian arguments in support of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.

Central Asia is part of China’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative to expand trade by building ports, railways and other infrastructure across an arc of dozens of countries from the South Pacific through Asia to the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was formed by Russia and China as a counterweight to U.S. influence. The group also includes India, Pakistan and the four ex-Soviet Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Iran is on track to receive full membership.
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