LAHORE: The Punjab Cabinet Committee on Disaster Management on Wednesday approved river-protection works costing Rs 898.7 million on the right bank of the Chenab and declared two tehsils of Sheikhupura disaster-affected, clearing the way for compensation payments to flood-hit residents.
According to an official statement, the meeting was held at the PDMA head office on the directions of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif and chaired by Provincial Minister and committee chairman Khawaja Salman Rafique.
The protection works are intended to check erosion in the Kot Momin area of Sargodha. Tehsils Ferozwala and Muridke in Sheikhupura were declared disaster-affected under Flood 2026, making residents eligible for compensation under provincial policy.
The committee approved Rs 7.2 million for a family in Nankana Sahib after 16 buffaloes died in an electrocution incident, and Rs 11.2 million for houses damaged by landslides at Jhikka Gali in Murree. It also approved inclusion of flood-area boundaries in the official gazette on the basis of Flood 2025 — a technical step that fixes, in law, which land is recognised as flood-prone and therefore eligible for future relief.
Secretary Irrigation Wasif Khurshid and the commissioners of Lahore, Sargodha and Rawalpindi attended by video link, along with deputy commissioners of Sargodha, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib and Murree.
The approvals follow the most severe flood season Punjab has faced in a decade. During the 2025 monsoon, Punjab’s rivers rose to “exceptionally high” levels after a combination of heavy rain in upper catchments and water releases from Indian dams. At the peak, the Chenab at Khanki was recording outflows above 975,000 cusecs, the army was requested in multiple districts including Lahore, Kasur, Sialkot and Narowal, and PDMA reported that more than two million people had been moved and over 1.5 million livestock relocated. The Punjab death toll had reached 56 by early September 2025; nationally, the 2025 floods killed more than 1,000 people.
PDMA has continued issuing river and nullah alerts through the 2026 monsoon, including alerts for medium-to-high flows in the Chenab and Jhelum in July.
Khawaja Salman Rafique said continuous steps were being taken to make Punjab flood-resilient under the Chief Minister’s vision, adding that Rescue had been equipped with modern equipment worth billions of rupees. He said PDMA and allied institutions had performed well during the Sheikhupura flooding, and warned that recent rains had raised water levels in drains and that the administration should remain alert.
DG PDMA Muhammad Saif Anwar Jappa said the meeting reviewed erosion protection during the monsoon and approved measures to protect agricultural land, villages and protective dams. He said pre-disaster and post-disaster mechanisms were being strengthened and that PDMA was in constant contact with district administrations.
The statement does not disclose the total number of households affected in Ferozwala and Muridke, the per-family compensation rate, or the disbursement timeline. Punjab’s compensation record in past flood cycles has turned less on approval of funds than on the speed at which they reach claimants — after the 2014 floods, the province paid a first instalment of Rs 25,000 per family to more than 75,000 households within five days, a benchmark later cycles have struggled to match.
Leave a Reply