According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Pakistan received 166.8 mm of rain in August, as opposed to the average of 48 mm - an increase of 241 per cent. The rains and floods have so far killed 937 people 396 men, 198 women, and 343 children and left 1,293 injured across Pakistan since June 14, it said.

Sindh and Balochistan - the worst-hit regions - witnessed a 784 percent and 496 percent increase in the monsoon deluge, respectively, the Dawn newspaper reported. The abnormal increase in rainfall generated flash floods across the country, particularly in the southern part of Pakistan, which remains inundated with 23 districts of Sindh being declared calamity-hit, the report said.

Sindh province has reported the highest number of deaths with 306 people losing their lives due to floods and rain-related incidents, according to NDMA data. Balochistan has reported 234 deaths whereas Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab have recorded 185 and 165 deaths, respectively. In Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, 37 people have died while nine deaths have been reported in the Gilgit-Baltistan region.

Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman said on Thursday that a war room has been set up by Prime Minister Sharif at NDMA, which would spearhead relief operations across the country. She said that the incessant monstrous rainfall had made it hard to carry out relief operations, especially helicopter sorties.

Pakistan is going through its 8th cycle of monsoon; normally the country has only three to four cycles of [monsoon] rain, the minister said during a press conference in Islamabad. Pakistan is under an unprecedented monsoon spell and data suggests the possibility of re-emergence of another cycle in September, she was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Senator Rehman, who compared the current situation with the devastating 2010 floods, said the current situation was worse than that. The water is not only flowing from the north as in 2010, but it is equally or more devastating in its sweep and destructive power, she said.

According to the senator, flash floods caused by heavy rains had swept away bridges and communication infrastructure in various areas of the country. Almost 30 million people are without shelter, thousands of them displaced and have no food, she said.

Stressing the need for relief from international donors, the minister said that the need for shelter and relief was dire as per what the provinces had conveyed. Sindh has asked for one million tents and Balochistan has demanded 100,000 tents, she said, adding that all tent manufacturers had been mobilised and external donors were also approached for tents.

The monsoon season runs from July to September in Pakistan. This year monsoon and pre-monsoon rains broke the 30-year record in Pakistan and the NDMA data shows that the 30-year average rain was 130.8 millimeters but the rainfall in the 2022 season was 375.4 mm 187 per cent more.

Foreign Office spokesman Asim Iftikhar Ahmed said at his weekly briefing that the UN would launch a flash appeal next week to mobilise international support for the flood victims in the country. He said a donor's conference was held on Thursday in Islamabad in which a number of UN Agencies and many resident diplomatic missions were represented, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also participated.