The fans whirred uselessly in Lahore’s Anarkali Bazaar as the mercury climbed past 47 degrees Celsius. It was Eid ul Adha morning — a day meant for prayer, family, and the age-old ritual of Qurbani — but this year, Pakistan’s second-largest religious festival arrived wrapped in a heat advisory that left millions choosing between tradition and survival.

The Heat That Changed Everything

Across Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, temperatures hovered between 44 and 49 degrees through the Eid holiday weekend — the highest recorded for an Eid ul Adha in at least a decade. The Pakistan Meteorological Department issued a red-alert for 22 districts, warning that the heat index in some cities exceeded 51 degrees. In Multan, a 34-year-old construction worker died of heatstroke while travelling to his ancestral village for the holiday. In Karachi, emergency rooms at Jinnah and Civil Hospital were flooded with heat-exhaustion cases, most of them elderly and children.

“We have never seen anything like this on Eid. The air itself feels like it is burning. We performed the Eid prayer quickly and went straight inside — there was no question of staying outdoors.”
— Farah Nazir, resident of Faisalabad

The irony was not lost on Pakistanis online. As the hashtag #ScorchingEid trended across social media, many pointed out the cruel timing: a festival built around gathering, outdoor prayers, and livestock sacrifice, now overshadowed by a climate emergency that has been years in the making.

A City That Nearly Ran Out of Water

Quetta, Balochistan’s parched capital, came closest to a full-blown water crisis. With temperatures breaching 46 degrees and the region’s groundwater tables depleted, several residential areas reported that municipal water supplies had been cut to once every three days. Women in Quetta’s Pashtunabad neighbourhood told local journalists they had to choose between giving water to their children or saving it for the Qurbani animals.

Dr. Aamir Hussain, a climate scientist at COMSATS University Islamabad, put it plainly: “What we are witnessing is not an anomaly. It is the new normal. Every summer now brings records that would have been unthinkable ten years ago.” He cited data showing that average summer temperatures in Punjab have risen by 1.4 degrees Celsius since 2015.

When Qurbani Becomes a Heat Event

The ritual of Qurbani — the sacrificial slaughter of an animal on Eid ul Adha — posed a particular challenge. Traditionally, families would perform the sacrifice outdoors in courtyards or designated community spaces. This year, many mosques and community organisations in Lahore, Karachi, and Rawalpindi shifted to covered, air-conditioned venues, with some distributing ice and ORS packets alongside the meat.

The Pakistan Veterinary Medical Association issued advisories urging citizens to complete Qurbani before 10 a.m. and to keep animals in shaded, ventilated areas. “The animals are suffering as much as the people,” said Dr. Saba Malik, a vet in Sialkot who spent the Eid morning visiting farms to check on cattle. “Heat stress in livestock causes not just suffering but also affects meat quality. It’s a lose-lose.”

The Human Toll

Official figures from the National Disaster Management Authority put the heat-related death toll over the Eid weekend at 27, with more than 3,400 heat-exhaustion cases reported across hospitals nationwide. Human rights organisations say the real number could be significantly higher, as many deaths in rural areas go unreported.

In rural Sindh, the heat wave coincided with the ongoing monsoon preparations, creating a double burden for farmers. “We are in the middle of preparing for the monsoon and also dealing with this,” said Ghulam Shah, a small farmer in Sanghar district. “Our wheat stores are already damaged from last month’s heat. We do not know how we will survive another season like this.”

The Politics of a Heat Wave

Pakistan’s government declared a “climate emergency” in March 2026, but critics say the announcement has yet to translate into meaningful policy. The national heat-action plan, developed with support from the World Bank, remains largely unimplemented in several provinces. “We have the documents. We have the plans. What we lack is the political will to actually fund and execute them,” said environmental activist Seema Omar.

The government’s emergency response during Eid was limited to distributing water tanks and setting up temporary shade structures in major cities. Opposition politicians and social media critics were quick to compare Pakistan’s situation with India, which has invested heavily in heat-mitigation infrastructure in states like Rajasthan and Gujarat.

What Comes Next

Meteorologists warn that the worst may not be over. The second spell of the heat wave is expected to persist through the first two weeks of June, with Sindh and south Punjab likely to remain the hardest hit. The Pakistan Meteorological Department has advised people to avoid outdoor activities between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., drink fluids regularly, and check on elderly neighbours.

For millions of Pakistanis who spent this Eid indoors, clutching electric fans and counting ice cubes, the memory of the day will be inseparable from the heat. “We celebrated Eid, yes,” wrote one user on X, “but we survived it.” And in a country where survival and celebration have always been two sides of the same coin, that distinction may be the most honest summary of all.