ISLAMABAD: Richard Grenell, the US Envoy for Special Missions under President Donald Trump, met with the jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sons in California on Wednesday and renewed calls for their father’s release, describing his imprisonment as “political prosecution.”

A close aide to the US president, Grenell has been a vocal supporter of Khan in recent months. His endorsement is seen as symbolically significant by supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party who are seeking international attention on the issue.

In a post on social media platform X, Grenell shared a photo with Sulaiman and Kasim Khan, saying:

“You must stay strong. There are millions of people around the world who are sick of political prosecutions. You are not alone. #FreeImranKhan.”

The meeting comes as PTI prepares to launch a protest campaign in Pakistan demanding Khan’s release. The party has announced that Khan’s sons, who have largely avoided political engagement, will also participate in the campaign.

Khan, 71, has been jailed since August 2023 and is currently serving a sentence on a number of charges. PTI says he faces more than 100 legal cases, all of which he calls politically motivated.

PTI also remains under pressure, with several senior leaders behind bars and others in hiding or facing legal challenges. Rights groups have accused Pakistani authorities of cracking down on dissent and curbing space for political opposition.

In a rare social media post last month, Khan’s sons raised concerns about their father’s prison conditions and called for his release, saying they feared for his health and well-being.

The PTI has yet to finalize details of its planned protest campaign, expected to begin in early August to coincide with the second anniversary of Khan’s arrest.

The party has framed the movement as a democratic struggle for civil liberties and judicial independence.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s disaster agency on Wednesday warned of continued torrential rains, flash floods and landslides in the country’s northern and central regions, as the nationwide death toll from this monsoon season climbed to 245, with over 600 people injured.

The alert follows weeks of heavy rains that have triggered house collapses, urban flooding and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), phenomena linked to rapid glacier melt, with children making up nearly half of all fatalities.

“Heavy rains may generate flash floods in local streams of Chitral, Dir, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra, Kohistan, Abbottabad, Buner, Charsadda, Nowshera, Swabi, Mardan, Murree, Galliyat, Islamabad and Rawalpindi,” the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said in a statement.

“Urban flooding is also likely in low-lying areas of major cities including Gujranwala, Lahore, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Nowshera and Peshawar.”

The PMD also warned that glacier lake outburst floods remained a growing threat in high-altitude areas, exacerbated by accelerated ice melt driven by global warming. It urged the public to avoid travel to mountainous regions, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir, and Murree, due to the heightened risk of landslides.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), this monsoon season which began in late June, at least 135 deaths have occurred in Punjab, including 63 children, followed by 59 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 24 in Sindh, 16 in Balochistan, six in Islamabad, three in Gilgit-Baltistan, and two in Azad Kashmir.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed authorities to accelerate relief operations in flood-hit regions.

Local media reported that search efforts were still underway for a father and daughter whose car was swept away in a flash flood in Islamabad’s upscale Defense Housing Authority (DHA) neighborhood.

Earlier this week, key travel routes such as the Karakoram Highway and Babusar Top were closed due to heavy landslides, blocking access to northern Pakistan.

The monsoon typically delivers 70–80 percent of South Asia’s annual rainfall between June and September. While crucial for agriculture, the seasonal rains also bring destruction in countries like Pakistan where infrastructure is weak, drainage systems are poor and climate resilience remains underfunded.

Pakistan, home to more than 7,000 glaciers, ranks among the most climate-vulnerable countries despite contributing less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. It has already experienced increasingly erratic weather in recent years, including record-breaking heatwaves, droughts, and severe storms.

In 2022, unprecedented monsoon rains combined with glacial melt submerged nearly a third of the country, killing more than 1,700 people and displacing over 8 million. The disaster inflicted $30 billion in damages and prompted global calls for climate reparations.

In May this year, at least 32 more people were killed during sudden rainfall and hailstorm incidents.