The participants said the daily increases had aggravated inflation and made the cost of living unbearable for ordinary people, particularly those from the middle and lower-middle classes.

The joint meeting, presided over by PBC Vice Chairman Pir Muhammad Masood Chishti and PBC Executive Committee Chairman Munir Ahmed Malik, expressed concern in a resolution that the daily increases in fuel prices had caused widespread frustration and unrest among the public and adversely affected people’s purchasing power.

The meeting demanded that the government immediately withdraw unnecessary privileges, excessive packages, free fuel facilities, the unnecessary use of official vehicles and other undue expenditures being enjoyed by ministers, government officials and other privileged persons.

“The government must take concrete and immediate measures to control fuel price inflation and provide relief to ordinary citizens,” the resolution said.

The meeting emphasised that the proposal for a “smart lockdown” was not a solution to the prevailing economic crisis.

“Such measures, if imposed, would further burden ordinary citizens, daily-wage earners and businesses.” The PBC called upon the government to take practical steps aimed at facilitating and providing relief to citizens.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had announced a “relief scheme” for owners of motorcycles, rickshaws and vehicles of up to 800cc.

Under the scheme, owners of two- and three-wheeled vehicles will receive a subsidy of Rs100 per litre on a monthly quota of 20 litres, while those owning vehicles of up to 800cc will receive the same subsidy on a monthly quota of 30 litres.

The Strait of Hormuz is already under stress and largely blocked to all ships, including tankers, while Houthi forces have escalated attacks on shipping and threatened a full naval blockade of Bab al-Mandab.

The Houthis seized control of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and the Bab al-Mandab Strait last week, declaring a maritime blockade on Riyadh. While the current blockade of Bab al-Mandab is limited to Saudi ships, fears of a larger closure persist.

As exporters, industrialists and regional experts weigh in on the possible implications of such a blockade for Pakistan, the question for Islamabad is no longer theoretical: what would happen to Pakistan’s economy if this 29-kilometre gateway between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean were to effectively close?

In the short term, the immediate impact of a closure of Bab al-Mandab would be felt by shipments using the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, particularly those involved in trade with Europe.

Shipping lines would have to divert affected services around the Cape of Good Hope, increasing voyage times and freight costs while putting additional pressure on vessel and container availability. The additional burden on trade and the economy would depend on the duration of the closure.

The stakes are considerably high — not only for Pakistan but for all trading nations — as roughly a tenth of all global seaborne trade, and about a third of Europe’s imports, moves through this corridor linking Asia, Europe and East Africa.

Now that this route is contested, ships sailing through it would not only put their crews at risk but would also have to pay hefty war-risk insurance premiums.

A safer option would be to divert around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, a detour that typically adds 10 to 18 days to the journey, depending on several factors, including weather conditions. These longer voyages could cost well over a million dollars more in additional fuel and crew costs.

According to the Pakistan Ship’s Agents Association (PSAA), a cargo ship takes between 18 and 22 days to travel from Northern Europe to Karachi via the Bab al-Mandab and Suez Canal route. The journey from Karachi to the US East Coast, meanwhile, takes between 25 and 30 days. Taking the Cape of Good Hope route would add to these travel times, affect the reliability of delivery schedules and result in slower turnaround times.

With higher shipping costs and longer delivery times, Pakistani exporters — especially those in the textile industry — fear that their European customers may turn to alternative suppliers for their orders.

A prolonged closure of Bab al-Mandab would not only increase the cost of each shipment for Pakistani importers and exporters, but could also encourage European buyers to seek alternative trading partners.

Pakistan’s textile exporters are already under pressure as they compete with Bangladesh, Vietnam and India in European and American markets.

Longer lead times can strain just-in-time retail contracts, tie up working capital in goods in transit for longer and expose exporters to penalties for late deliveries. The compounding effect could widen the current account deficit, as costlier oil imports push up the import bill while more expensive and slower shipping erodes export receipts from the European Union and the US.

“We must act early to keep trade moving and protect our competitiveness,” Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Rehan Hanif said.

Fuel supply losses

The closure of Bab al-Mandab to Saudi ships has seriously affected fuel supplies. Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association Senior Vice Chairman Raja Wasim said crude oil for Pakistani refineries was previously supplied from Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea ports, but those supplies had since stopped.

He added that four to five vessels carrying refined oil products, including petrol and diesel, arrived each week from the Persian Gulf, but the number of such shipments had also declined.

As the war widened, the crucial Saudi East-West Pipeline in Saudi Arabia was hit as well. The pipeline carries crude oil from the oil-producing Dammam province, near Bahrain and Qatar on the Persian Gulf coast, across the Arabian Peninsula to Yanbu city on the Red Sea.

As a result, oil supplies to Pakistan have been disrupted. Describing the disruption to the route as worrisome, Wasim said that crude oil supplies from Yanbu to Pakistani refineries had completely stopped.

“We used to receive up to two tankers of crude oil on a weekly basis. The impact is visible; the petrol price has jumped by Rs30 per litre in the last 10 days,” Wasim said, adding that the current situation was not just about prices but also a lack of supplies.

“We are not like Japan or China, which can buy oil from American companies. Can we afford it?” he questioned.

Because Pakistan holds limited strategic fuel reserves and imports most of its refined petroleum products, almost every dollar of additional Gulf freight or insurance costs is eventually reflected in ex-depot prices.

Currently, Pakistan has several options available, but such scenarios also present an opportunity to look ahead, according to Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Sardar Tahir.

He said Pakistan needed to diversify its energy sources, build strategic fuel reserves and smooth out price spikes linked to shipping disruptions, rather than passing them directly on to consumers.

“We need to focus on diversifying export markets as well as logistics, improving port efficiency and strengthening domestic production of critical inputs to help reduce our vulnerabilities,” Tahir said.

Meanwhile, analysts tracking the wider Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab crisis have warned that a coordinated disruption at both chokepoints could produce a self-reinforcing shock with regional repercussions.

Sanober Institute Executive Director Dr Qamar Cheema and strategic analysts studying the wider dual-chokepoint crisis said pressure on Pakistan to play a role in regional mediation efforts was growing, as sustained diplomatic engagement would be required to move towards de-escalation.

“Pakistan is now going to play a role in mediation. We can talk to the Houthis, just as the Americans did in Oman,” Cheema said, stressing that such talks were essential for the region and Pakistan.

Even switching to an induction cooker has not helped, as power outages often leave food half-cooked.

More than 2,000 kilometres away on the other side of South Asia, in Pakistan, the government has started a fuel subsidy that went into effect on Wednesday to ease the sharp rise in fuel prices.

Vehicle owners have to register for the subsidy, however, and residents have complained the programme is not working smoothly.

Mohammad Musharraf, who lives in Karachi, says he has spent days trying to register with his motorcycle and ID card number, but has struggled.

“First of all, you have to register your vehicle. Then you have to register your mobile phone. How can an illiterate person survive if the conditions are so difficult?”

Attacks by the US and Israel on Iran over six months ago led to the disruption of oil and gas exports through the Strait of Hormuz. Now fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis also imperils trade through the Red Sea.

The problems at the two chokepoints have driven Asian spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices back toward $30 per million British thermal units this week, the second such spike this year, from about $10 before the war.

Shell estimates the world has lost roughly 36 million tonnes of LNG from the Middle East so far this year, and the shortage is particularly hitting countries where governments have limited financial leeway to intervene.

In Bangladesh, the shortfall has triggered blackouts and factory shutdowns. Pakistan and other countries in the region are rushing to blunt public anger with hastily introduced subsidies.

Bangladesh in the dark

Bangladesh draws more than 40 per cent of its electricity from imported LNG, and disruptions in deliveries from Qatar — once the source of 95pc of those imports — have forced Dhaka to chase costlier cargoes on the spot market.

“Industrial growth is slowing down, and production is going down,” Power Minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmud said this week.

The strain shows up in orders in its garments industry, the country’s biggest export.

A survey of knitwear factories by the BKMEA trade group found 55pc had seen buyers cancel or cut orders because of gas and power shortages since late August, and 78pc had partially halted production.

At one factory, a boiler ruined in mid-process by low gas pressure forced owner Alvi Islam to source fabric from China instead — a delay that led a buyer to cut a 50,000-piece order to 40,000.

Others had to take on additional expenses after energy-related production delays forced them to send finished products by plane to meet deadlines. Garment industry executive Fazlee Shamim Ehsan said his factory had to pay $50,000 to send hoodie jackets by air freight to a French buyer.

“On top of that, we’ve had to spend extra money on diesel just to keep the factory running,” said Ehsan, who is the managing director of Fatullah Apparels Ltd.

In Tangail city, poultry farmer Sayedul Islam said power outages are killing 15 to 20 of his birds a day because he cannot run the electric fans needed to cool his sheds.

Even hospitals aren’t spared. In Sylhet, power cuts hit the local hospital almost hourly. While generators keep intensive care units running, they don’t always suffice for ward ventilation, leaving patients to cope with the heat in crowded rooms.

The government has said it is seeking solutions. Fazlul Hoque of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry pointed to a directive to fix a non-functional LNG terminal, which would help more tankers unload.

Some, including business owner Ehsan, said they have noticed slight improvements in recent days with gas supplies increasing.

Grids and gas tanks

Pakistan’s power grid is under a milder version of the same strain.

The government has reintroduced austerity measures in an effort to conserve fuel, setting 9pm as the time for closing markets and reducing fuel provision for official vehicles by 50pc for a period of three months.

The Pakistani power sector will need up to 400m cubic feet of gas a day through winter, Independent System and Market Operator (ISMO) data shows, with only two LNG cargoes confirmed so far for September.

One standard Pakistan LNG cargo is around 140,000 cubic metres, equivalent to roughly 3 billion cubic feet of gas, or just over one week’s supply.

While solar power has eased some of Pakistan’s power crunch in recent years, the country still needs gas for other sectors and households, said Masood Nabi, chief executive of state importer Pakistan LNG, at Gastech this week.

The more immediate battle in Pakistan, though, is over transport fuel prices.

The Prime Minister’s Fuel Relief Scheme that took effect on Wednesday night offers motorcycle, rickshaw and small-car owners a subsidy of Rs100 a litre on a capped monthly quota.

Petrol has risen to roughly Rs391 ($1.37) a litre and diesel to Rs421 ($1.48) — a heavy burden in a country where the minimum wage is around $145 a month.

Business leaders and workers say it isn’t enough.

“We used to eat meat once a week, but now it is difficult to afford it even once a month,” said Amesh Gul, 32, a rickshaw driver in Karachi whose income has taken a hit with rising fuel prices.

“All I ask of the government is to please take care of poor people.”

Header image: People on motorbikes ride past a portrait of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif set up in protest against rising fuel prices, ahead of the nationwide rollout of a government fuel subsidy scheme, in Karachi on Sept 16, 2026. — Reuters

Mirpur District Emergency Officer (DEO) Sardar Najam Sadozai said that Rescue-1122 divers were conducting an operation to recover the third child’s body from the Khari Sharif canal in Mirpur.

However, in a later update, he confirmed that rescue officials had stopped the operation without recovering the third child’s body.

The Khari Sharif canal originates from the Jhelum River and is located in the border area between AJK’s Mirpur and the Mangla Dam canal in Punjab’s Jhelum district.

Jhelum District Police Officer (DPO) Shafiq Chaudhry confirmed that police had arrested a man, for allegedly throwing his three children — two daughters and a son — into a canal in Mirpur.

According to preliminary investigations, the suspect was allegedly an addict and had an estranged relationship with his wife, who had been living at her paternal home. Further investigation was underway, DPO Chaudhry said.

“Police in Jhelum are investigating the suspect from all possible angles to ascertain the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the children,” he added.

The suspect confessed to the crime after his wife raised an alarm over the disappearance of their three children, the senior police official added.

According to DPO Chaudhry, the suspect had taken his three children with him “for an outing” but did not return.

“As the suspect is also an addict, his wife became alarmed when the children did not return and informed the police,” he said.

“The Mangla police station in Jhelum district, taking notice of the complaint, took the man into custody, where he told police that he had thrown his three children into a canal of the Jhelum River,” the senior official said.

The police registered a first information report (FIR) on the complaint of the children’s mother under Section 363 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

“On September 15, 2026, at around 6pm, I, along with my brother, took the children to Pir Bhechan Darbar for a visit. On our return, my brother stopped the vehicle in front of a bakery on Mangla Road in Dina, and I went to buy some items for the children.

“While I was inside the bakery, my husband, Zeeshan, accompanied by two unidentified individuals, approached my brother’s vehicle in my absence and told him: ‘I am going to the City Housing Society; I will take the children with me to the park and return them to you afterwards.’

“Persuaded by his words, my brother handed all three children over to Zeeshan. Shortly afterwards, both my brother and I became deeply concerned.”

The complainant added that when she tried to contact the suspect on his mobile phone, it was switched off.

She further said that she and her brother then searched for the children to the best of their ability but were unable to find them.