The monsoon has barely settled over Pakistan, and already the country is being handed its bill. According to the National Disaster Management Authority, rain-related incidents have already killed at least 17 people and injured more than 40, mostly through roof and wall collapses, lightning strikes and similar tragedies that are too easily blamed on the weather, when they often expose deeper failures of local preparedness and unsafe construction. More rains and storms are now expected in Azad Kashmir, upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Islamabad, Potohar and northeastern Punjab.
This is why the latest round of meetings in Islamabad must be judged not by the seriousness of their press release but by the speed of their execution. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has approved an Emergency Response Committee headed by the planning minister, ordered weekly coordination meetings with provinces, asked the finance minister to prepare an emergency fund, directed federal teams to visit all provinces, AJK and GB, and called for encroachments to be removed from river channels and flood pathways. All well and good, yet the real test is whether the state machinery reaches vulnerable settlements before the wrath of Mother Nature does.
The Met Office has already forecast above-normal rainfall, landslide risks in northern regions and urban flooding in major cities. We would do well to remember that last year’s rains claimed more than 1,000 lives, affected millions and destroyed homes, roads, bridges, crops and livelihoods. The horrors of the biblical floods of 2022 are etched in our collective memory, or at least they should be. Still, every monsoon, Pakistan rediscovers the same blocked drains, the same unsafe roofs, the same encroachments, the same missing evacuation plans and the same administrative confusion between federal advisories and provincial action.
The more dangerous development is that the monsoon is no longer only a flood-management problem. It is becoming a food-security problem. A high-level emergency committee has warned that shrinking glaciers, rising drought risks and a dry monsoon in parts of Pakistan could stress agriculture and create a gross food-security hazard. The planning minister has directed the food security ministry to work with the National Emergencies Operation Centre on long-range projections through 2027, while chief secretaries of all four provinces have been brought into the coordination structure. That is the right direction, because Pakistan cannot plan for climate through relief trucks alone.
Pakistan contributes less than one per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet remains among the countries most exposed to climate shocks. That is a valid argument in global climate diplomacy. However, it cannot be allowed to become an alibi for domestic neglect. No government can prevent every cloudburst, glacial burst or river surge. It can, however, stop treating preventable losses as acts of God. *