Pakistani police charge Baloch rights activist with facilitating separatist militants

ISLAMABAD: The government in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province on Thursday banned washing cars at home, saying that it would impose a fine of Rs10,000 [$35.75] on violators as it seeks to implement a high court’s earlier directive to conserve water. 

The Environmental Protection Agency Punjab issued the directives in compliance with an order by the Lahore High Court (LHC) last Friday banning the washing of cars at home and directed authorities to consider imposing a fine of $35.57 on violators. 

The high court also directed that filling stations without water treatment plants should be sealed with an initial warning, followed by a fine of Rs100,000 [$357.50]. 

The directives came after the court heard several petitions related to ineffective measures by officials against smog, local media reports said. 

“Ban on the use of water for washing of cars and use of hose pipes in the houses,” a notification from the EPA said. “Anyone found in violation of these directions will be imposed a fine of Rs.10,000.”

The provincial agency also banned oil washing of vehicles, and ordered immediate closure of all illegal/unapproved car wash and service stations in the province in compliance with the court’s orders. 

“Mandatory installation of carwash wastewater recycling system and U-Channels at all Car wash Stations by 28th February, 2025,” the notification said.

“In case the petrol pumps are found to be lacking in their obligations in this regard, fine of Rs. 100,000/- shall be imposed on the defaulting petrol pumps, in addition to sealing of car wash area.”

The notification cited an earlier warning by the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) in which it had highlighted that Punjab had experienced 42 percent below normal rainfall from Sept. 1, 2024, to Jan. 15, 2025. 

The PMD had said that Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab were the most affected provinces where rainfall deficits of 52 percent, 45 percent, and 42 percent, respectively, have been recorded.

Water-stressed Pakistan has a population of 241.49 million people with a growth rate of 2.55 percent. Linked to that, per capita water availability has been on a downward trend for decades. 
In 1947, when Pakistan was created, the figure stood at about 5,000 cubic meters per person, according to the World Bank. Today it is 1,000 cubic meters. 
It will decline further with the population expected to double in the next 50 years, climate change experts say, pointing out that Pakistan needs intervention on a range of water-related issues: from the impact of climate change to hydropower, from transboundary water-sharing to irrigated and rain-fed agriculture, and from drinking water to sanitation.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Army Chief General Syed Asim Munir has denied receiving any letters from jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, state-run media reported on Thursday, saying he would dispatch it to PM Shehbaz Sharif if he did receive it. 

Khan, who has been in jail since August 2023 on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated, said this month he had written two open letters to Munir this month highlighting the alleged shrinking space for democracy in the country due to rights abuses and “rigging” in last year’s election. 

The former prime minister was ousted from power in April 2022 via a parliamentary vote after falling out with Pakistan’s powerful army generals. Khan blames the military for colluding with his political rivals to orchestrate his ouster, a charge the military denies and reiterates that it does not interfere in political matters. 

Munir was speaking to reporters informally at a luncheon hosted for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Islamabad on Thursday when he spoke about Khan’s letters. 

“The Army Chief said he has not received any letter from anyone,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported. “However, if it is received, he would dispatch it to the Prime Minister.”

In Khan’s first letter to Munir this month, he called for a reevaluation of current political policies, alleging that his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was being targeted by the state.

Tensions between the PTI and the army have remained at fever-pitch especially after Khan’s brief arrest on May 9, 2023, in a land graft case that sparked countrywide protests. 

Angry supporters carrying the PTI’s flags attacked and ransacked military installations in an unprecedented backlash against the army. 

The military has called the day of the protests a “Black Day” and vowed to punish those involved. Since then, at least 5,000 of Khan’s supporters have been arrested, and dozens of his top party leaders have defected after they faced increasing pressure from the military establishment to do so, according to his supporters. The army denies the allegations. 

Thousands of Khan supporters marched toward Islamabad in November 2024 to demand his release from prison. The government says four troops were killed in the ensuing clashes by Khan supporters, a charge the PTI denies and says its loyalists were instead shot and killed.