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SenatorSherryRehman

@sherryrehman1,313,962 subscribers

Senate Parliamentary Leader; VP PPP; Pakistan’s former Federal Minister Climate & Env ;Former Leader Opposition;FormerPak Amb to the US.Editor “Womansplaining”

Shorts

The catastrophic flooding predating KP, GB & AJK is obviously triggered by global #climatechange, which is fuelled by rising emissions and warming, but equally so by local institutional indifference to building real resilience for communities and society. The mega monsoon of 2025 has already claimed over 300 lives—most in KP—triggering landslides that wiped out villages, hampering rescue efforts with helicopter crashes, mass displacements. Why is this happening? • Forests everywhere are a shield against excess flooding, both in reducing bare-ground heating as well as for blunting climate shock and slowing water cascades. Deforestation in Pakistan is driven by illegal logging, wildfires, and the conversion of forest land for agriculture, commercial development, and mushrooming housing schemes. How much timber is lost to mafias in KP and the north ? Pakistan has the highest deforestation rate in South Asia and only retains 5 % forest 🌳 cover. In the last 33 years, Pakistan’s forest cover has alarmingly shrunk by 18%, falling from 3.78 million hectares in 1992 to a mere 3.09 million hectares in 2025. This devastating loss is most acute in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s districts like Swat, Chitral, Dir, Kohistan, and Shangla, where the illegal timber mafia relentlessly exploits ancient pine and deodar forests despite government bans imposed since 2002 and 2017. Large swathes of the "Million Tree Tsunami" disappeared in a sea of local graft, with saplings struggling to survive rapacious officials, flooding, neglect and poor audits. Locals report that 30 to 40% of Swat’s forests have already been destroyed, with the potential for up to 70% loss if this continues unchecked. The timber mafias operate with impunity where they "sanitise" local timber as coming in from Afghanistan. Each year, Pakistan loses approximately 27,000 hectares of forest, a critical natural defense that once protected communities from floods, heatwaves, and droughts. • Systemic failures on early warning have worsened the impact: Pakistan received $188 million from the World Bank for modernizing weather forecasting and establishing a disaster response system. Yet, unlike Bangladesh and Nepal, Pakistan failed to implement this vital infrastructure and by 2022 when the loan grant was saved from reversion at PMD it had to be repurposed for emergency cash transfers via the Benazir Income Support Programme for saving lives. Climate finance remains a source of inaction even in places where the commitment is available. • Unchecked urban development on riverbeds and green areas has destroyed natural shields for disaster reduction. From the Margallahs to KP, this march of "development" continues to cut through parks, green zones and what used to be protected areas. Graft and greed have led to land use rules being changed overnight, while permissions for building on floodplains, natural storm drains and channels for water flow have added to the devastation of areas and communities that could have been protected. • Melting glaciers, intensified floods, erratic rainfall now imperil Pakistan’s economy, food security, and very survival. Adaptation plans for national action & provinces remain paper documents referenced to elicit donor funding, or to activate delayed inputs. Plastic pollution continues to block drains and storm water exits in a country where there is no public literacy on pollution, and the role played by non biodegradable plastics in aiding monsoon flooding. Disaster management remains reactive and deployed in crisis, while today it faces overstretch at all points when faced with ferocity of extreme weather. To avoid deeper catastrophe, Pakistan must urgently seek more climate financing but build credibility too. It must locally embrace afforestation, resilient infrastructure, planning processes that actually mainstream climate action as policy not theory, reduce river & drain pollution, build empowered EPAs, support renewable energy. #ClimateActionNow

The catastrophic flooding predating KP, GB & AJK is obviously triggered by global #climatechange, which is fuelled by rising emissions and warming, but equally so by local institutional indifference to building real resilience for communities and society. The mega monsoon of 2025 has already claimed over 300 lives—most in KP—triggering landslides that wiped out villages, hampering rescue efforts with helicopter crashes, mass displacements. Why is this happening? • Forests everywhere are a shield against excess flooding, both in reducing bare-ground heating as well as for blunting climate shock and slowing water cascades. Deforestation in Pakistan is driven by illegal logging, wildfires, and the conversion of forest land for agriculture, commercial development, and mushrooming housing schemes. How much timber is lost to mafias in KP and the north ? Pakistan has the highest deforestation rate in South Asia and only retains 5 % forest 🌳 cover. In the last 33 years, Pakistan’s forest cover has alarmingly shrunk by 18%, falling from 3.78 million hectares in 1992 to a mere 3.09 million hectares in 2025. This devastating loss is most acute in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s districts like Swat, Chitral, Dir, Kohistan, and Shangla, where the illegal timber mafia relentlessly exploits ancient pine and deodar forests despite government bans imposed since 2002 and 2017. Large swathes of the "Million Tree Tsunami" disappeared in a sea of local graft, with saplings struggling to survive rapacious officials, flooding, neglect and poor audits. Locals report that 30 to 40% of Swat’s forests have already been destroyed, with the potential for up to 70% loss if this continues unchecked. The timber mafias operate with impunity where they "sanitise" local timber as coming in from Afghanistan. Each year, Pakistan loses approximately 27,000 hectares of forest, a critical natural defense that once protected communities from floods, heatwaves, and droughts. • Systemic failures on early warning have worsened the impact: Pakistan received $188 million from the World Bank for modernizing weather forecasting and establishing a disaster response system. Yet, unlike Bangladesh and Nepal, Pakistan failed to implement this vital infrastructure and by 2022 when the loan grant was saved from reversion at PMD it had to be repurposed for emergency cash transfers via the Benazir Income Support Programme for saving lives. Climate finance remains a source of inaction even in places where the commitment is available. • Unchecked urban development on riverbeds and green areas has destroyed natural shields for disaster reduction. From the Margallahs to KP, this march of "development" continues to cut through parks, green zones and what used to be protected areas. Graft and greed have led to land use rules being changed overnight, while permissions for building on floodplains, natural storm drains and channels for water flow have added to the devastation of areas and communities that could have been protected. • Melting glaciers, intensified floods, erratic rainfall now imperil Pakistan’s economy, food security, and very survival. Adaptation plans for national action & provinces remain paper documents referenced to elicit donor funding, or to activate delayed inputs. Plastic pollution continues to block drains and storm water exits in a country where there is no public literacy on pollution, and the role played by non biodegradable plastics in aiding monsoon flooding. Disaster management remains reactive and deployed in crisis, while today it faces overstretch at all points when faced with ferocity of extreme weather. To avoid deeper catastrophe, Pakistan must urgently seek more climate financing but build credibility too. It must locally embrace afforestation, resilient infrastructure, planning processes that actually mainstream climate action as policy not theory, reduce river & drain pollution, build empowered EPAs, support renewable energy. #ClimateActionNow

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In a shameful crime that is totally unconscionable , another young woman was killed in Rawalpindi by her husband after a jirga ordered her murder — allegedly under the supervision of a former Union Council Vice Chairman. This is not ghairat, this is qatl. Her body was buried in secret, her grave erased, and a false FIR was filed to cover it up. We raised the issue of dishonourable killings in the Senate — and a resolution was passed condemning so-called 'honour' killings after the tragic incident in Balochistan. Parliament has already made amendments to disallow compromise in such cases, yet the crimes continue — enabled by silence, impunity, and jirga justice. Strongly condemn this barbaric act. No jirga has the authority to order up life or death. The law must speak — and it must do so loudly. Want to see the culprits arrested. No mercy should be shown to these vigilante mobs! Here they are trying to even erase all traces of her burial site! #murderbyanothername #gbv

In a shameful crime that is totally unconscionable , another young woman was killed in Rawalpindi by her husband after a jirga ordered her murder — allegedly under the supervision of a former Union Council Vice Chairman. This is not ghairat, this is qatl. Her body was buried in secret, her grave erased, and a false FIR was filed to cover it up. We raised the issue of dishonourable killings in the Senate — and a resolution was passed condemning so-called 'honour' killings after the tragic incident in Balochistan. Parliament has already made amendments to disallow compromise in such cases, yet the crimes continue — enabled by silence, impunity, and jirga justice. Strongly condemn this barbaric act. No jirga has the authority to order up life or death. The law must speak — and it must do so loudly. Want to see the culprits arrested. No mercy should be shown to these vigilante mobs! Here they are trying to even erase all traces of her burial site! #murderbyanothername #gbv

39,742 просмотров

How the military bands marched to make a flag last night ! 💚💚💚 Quite spectacular ☺️ as they later made a Marka-e-Haq symbol too. #PakistanHumaishaZindabad #14August 🇵🇰

How the military bands marched to make a flag last night ! 💚💚💚 Quite spectacular ☺️ as they later made a Marka-e-Haq symbol too. #PakistanHumaishaZindabad #14August 🇵🇰

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Videos

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The #ShishperGlacier in Gilgit-Baltistan is melting at a dangerously rapid pace — a stark reminder of how global warming and rising high-altitude temperatures are reshaping our mountains. Once a stable, enduring ice mass, Shishper has grown increasingly unstable in recent years, unleashing frequent Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) that endanger lives, destroy infrastructure, and wipe out livelihoods downstream. This accelerated melt is not just a local crisis — it is a clear signal of the escalating threats facing mountain communities across the region and the world, and a call for urgent, targeted climate adaptation in Gilgit-Baltistan. Just last week, a #GLOF from Shishper swelled the Hassanabad Nullah in Hunza, damaging newly built retaining walls, eroding farmland, and washing away a section of the Karakoram Highway. While traffic remains open, the damaged stretch is sealed, and dozens of mountainside homes remain at risk. According to @UNDPPakistan the country has 3,044 glacial lakes, with 33 identified as dangerous — threatening 2 million people downstream, including 800,000 mountain residents in immediate danger. These #glaciers feed the Indus River — Pakistan’s lifeline — which provides 90% of our water for food production. Yet today, the Indus is the world’s 2nd most polluted river, with 40% of its solid waste being plastic. We have already lost 16% of glacier mass in the Indus headwaters in just 5 years. Without urgent action, experts warn the Indus could be reduced to a seasonal river by 2050, collapsing ecosystems, food systems, and millions of livelihoods. Pakistan is ranked the most climate-vulnerable country in the #Climate Risk Index 2025. If we do not act with urgency — and if we do not strengthen our own adaptation and resilience — GLOFs will become much more frequent and more deadly, sweeping away roads, homes, and farmland in matter of minutes and hours. #GLOFs #shisperglacier #GB

SenatorSherryRehman

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The facts need to matter ...

SenatorSherryRehman

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