ISLAMABAD/LAHORE. People in the plains of Pakistan will have to brace for sweltering hot weather, dry air, on Friday (today), as the Met Office issued a heatwave alert with necessary precautions to take to deal with high temperatures.

“Whole country, Particularly plain areas are under the grip of heatwave conditions. People are advised to take precautionary measures,” read the weather forecast issued by the Pakistan Meteorological Department. It added that continental air is prevailing over most parts of the country.

This comes amid the public complaints of hours long loadshedding across the country, with the incumbent and preceding governments putting blame on each other for shortfall and non-payments.

“Hot and dry weather is expected in most parts of the country, while very hot in plain areas. However light- rain thunderstorm is expected at a few places in Gilgit-Baltistan, upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kashmir and its adjoining hilly areas,” read the forecasts for Friday (today).

Pakistan lost more than 1,200 lives due to heatwaves in 2015, according to the Global Climate Risk Index 2017. “Pakistan remains a country which is highly vulnerable to the growing effects of climate change. This is evident from the fact that Pakistan is amongst the top 10 countries affected by climate change, over a 20 year time horizon (1996-2015), as the 7th most climate impacted country,” it read.

Punjab

The timings of loadshedding in urban areas of the provinces have increased from six to eight hours a day, including in sehr and iftar. Meanwhile, the rural areas are facing 10-12 hours of unannounced loadshedding.

Officials told Aaj News that 3,400MW of electricity is being provided across Punjab against the demand of 4,000MW.