The provincial government has declared Saturday as a day of mourning, chief minister Gandapur said.
“The national flag will fly at half-mast across the province, and the martyrs will be laid to rest with full state honours,” the statement from his office said.
Scientists say that climate change has made weather events around the world more extreme and more frequent.
Pakistan is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change, and its population is contending with extreme weather events with increasing frequency.
The torrential rains that have pounded Pakistan since the start of the summer monsoon, described as “unusual” by authorities, have killed more than 320 people, nearly half of them children.
In July, Punjab, home to nearly half of Pakistan’s 255 million people, recorded 73 per cent more rainfall than the previous year and more deaths than in the entire previous monsoon.
In 2022, monsoon floods submerged a third of the country and killed 1,700 people.
