KEY POINTS
- PM Sharif suspends August electricity bills for flood-hit households and seeks IMF support for relief.
- Monsoon floods have killed 972 people nationwide, NDMA reports.
- Punjab requests 1,710 army personnel to assist with post-flood damage surveys.
- Nearly 4.5 million people affected and 1.9 million livestock relocated in Punjab alone.
- IMF to review Pakistan’s fiscal response to floods in its next Extended Fund Facility mission.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday ordered immediate relief for communities hit by devastating monsoon floods, suspending electricity bills for affected households and directing officials to discuss the relief package with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
PM Sharif chaired a high-level meeting in Islamabad where he instructed electricity distribution companies to stop collecting August bills from consumers in flood-affected areas.
“Those consumers in the flood-affected areas who have paid their electricity bills for August 2025 will be adjusted next month,” the prime minister said, according to his office.
He also tasked the Ministry of Finance with approaching the IMF to secure a one-month exemption on electricity bills for residents of flood-hit regions. The exemption would apply across both rural and urban areas to provide “broad-based assistance” for households devastated by the disaster.
Monsoon Floods Kill 972
Floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains have so far killed 972 people nationwide, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
Crops, livestock and homes have been destroyed in Punjab province and rising waters are now threatening parts of Sindh, raising fears of fresh food inflation and deeper hardship for the cash-strapped South Asian nation.
Punjab’s provincial government has meanwhile requested the federal government to deploy 1,710 army personnel across 25 districts to assist with post-flood damage surveys.
The request, detailed in a letter to the interior ministry, said troops were needed to ensure “public cooperation, security and credibility” in assessments of losses to lives, property, crops and infrastructure.
According to a report by the Punjab Disaster Management Authority, at least 97 people have died in the province. More than 4,500 villages were submerged across the Ravi, Sutlej and Chenab rivers, affecting nearly 4.5 million people.
Around 2.45 million people were safely evacuated, and 396 relief camps were established in the worst-hit districts. Almost 1.9 million livestock were also relocated.
IMF to Review Flood Damages
The IMF on Saturday expressed condolences over the loss of lives and said that its next Extended Fund Facility (EFF) review mission will assess whether Pakistan’s fiscal policies and emergency provisions adequately address the crisis, Reuters news agency reported.
“The mission will assess whether the FY26 budget, its spending allocations and emergency provisions remain sufficiently agile to address the spending needs necessitated by the floods,” said Mahir Binici, IMF’s resident representative in Pakistan, Reuters reported.
Analysts, cited by Reuters, warn that agricultural damage could shave up to 0.2 percentage points off growth this year, with reconstruction demand offering only partial offset.
Pakistan ranks among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index.
