ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Meteorological Department came under fire in Parliament on Wednesday after lawmakers said unreliable forecasts left the country unprepared for floods that killed nearly 1,000 people this summer.
Members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Water Resources accused the agency of issuing contradictory predictions — warning of rain that never came while failing to anticipate record downpours that triggered deadly flash floods.
Officials from the ministry told the committee, chaired by MNA Ahmed Ateeq Anwer, that the deluge between June 26 and Sept. 14 killed 985 people, injured 1,062, and swept away 6,748 kilometers of roads, 29 bridges and 8,481 houses. More than 6,500 livestock also perished, while six sections of flood protection infrastructure were breached. Lawmakers demanded a full account of the failures at the next meeting.
The Met Office defended itself, saying it had warned authorities in May of heavier-than-usual monsoon rains after a South Asian climate forum flagged risks across the region. Its director general said the agency had shared updates through 120 monitoring centers nationwide, but institutions ignored the alerts. “Despite our timely warnings, no one listened,” the official said.
Committee members, including Shazia Marri and Mir Munawar Ali Talpur, dismissed the explanation, citing repeated forecasting errors. “When the department predicts four days of rain, not a drop falls — and when it says no rain, it pours,” Marri quipped. Lawmakers decided to summon the Met Office for a dedicated briefing on its technology, staffing, and performance.
The panel also raised alarms over glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and stagnant work on floodplain mapping, last updated in 2016. Apart from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, no province has made progress, officials admitted.
