PM Shehbaz Sharif cancels UAE visit amid catastrophic floods

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has cancelled his visit to United Arab Emirates (UAE) due to catastrophic floods in the country, ARY News reported.

A well-placed source informed ARY News that the prime minister was scheduled to visit UAE on September 2 on a two-day official visit.

The foreign office will release a revised schedule of PM Shehbaz’s visit later, say sources.

Earlier, PM Shehbaz Sharif had cancelled his visit to London while considering the flood situation in the country.

Pakistan floods death toll nears 1100

Tens of millions of people across swathes of Pakistan were Monday battling the worst monsoon floods in a decade, with countless homes washed away, vital farmland destroyed, and the country’s main river threatening to burst its banks.

Officials say 1,061 people have died since June when the seasonal rains began, but the final toll could be higher as hundreds of villages in the mountainous north have been cut off after flood-swollen rivers washed away roads and bridges.

The annual monsoon is essential for irrigating crops and replenishing lakes and dams across the Indian subcontinent, but it can also bring destruction.

Millions of acres of rich farmland have been flooded by weeks of non-stop rain, but now the Indus is threatening to burst its banks as torrents of water course downstream from tributaries in the north.