Killer heat.

AS temperatures soar faster and furiously, meteorologists conclude that extended hot spells will hit every year. Therefore, the government's cavalier approach towards heat tragedies is deplorable. On Wednesday, a first-year student in Khairpur died of the heat after he fainted during a test. Several others also collapsed at exam centres. Last month, heatstroke took the life of another man as he waited at a flour distribution point in Hyderabad.

According to a study quoted in The Economist, 'between 2000 and 2019, South Asia saw over 110,000 heat-related excess deaths a year'. An IPCC special report on climate extremes inferred 'temperature extremes are shifting globally. Heatwaves are projected to become more frequent and severe in India and Pakistan'. For these reasons, albeit lamentably late, authorities must realise that rescue plans should be put into action on a war footing: asphalt expanses peeled off for green cover and vegetation, fines imposed for every tree felled, vast parks converted into forests, greenhouses and fountains constructed to improve air quality, and factory and vehicle...