he monsoon rains that swept across Pakistan in recent weeks have left a trail of devastation, exposing once again the country’s flimsy disaster management systems and its alarming vulnerability to climate change. The National Disaster Management Authority has confirmed that nearly 400 people were killed and over 6,900 rescued during this latest spell of monsoon downpours that began in northern Pakistan late last week.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a mountainous province in the northwest that faced cloudbursts, flash floods, lightning strikes and landslides during this year’s monsoon season, reported 356 of these fatalities.

The NDMA’s situation report also revealed that since the start of the monsoon on June 26, 707 Pakistanis have perished. This highlights the scale of loss of lives over just two months. These figures represent not just individual tragedies but a national failure to anticipate and prevent climate-induced disasters that are no longer rare occurrences.

The state, once again, has been compelled into emergency relief measures. The armed forces have set up logistics hubs and medical camps, with helicopters airlifting food and medicine to otherwise inaccessible areas. According to army spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, six infantry units and eight Frontier Constabulary units have been directly engaged in rescue operations. He said that 6,903 men, women and children had been saved from drowning or being swept away and 6,300 people had received urgent medical treatment.

A comprehensive survey is under way to assess damage to homes and infrastructure. The results are expected by early September. The NDMA admits that more than 50 percent of the landslides are yet to be cleared. The NDMA travel advisory warns tourists against using vulnerable stretches of the Karakoram Highway and roads in Torghar, Batagram, Shangla, Gilgit, Hunza and Skardu, where several bridges including Surmo Bridge in Ghanche and Baghecha in Skardu have collapsed and alternate routes are unsafe or nonexistent.

The Punjab Provincial Disaster Management Authority has also issued warnings of heavy monsoon rains from August 19-22 across Rawalpindi, Murree, Galiyat, Attock, Chakwal, Jhelum, Gujranwala, Lahore, Gujrat and Sialkot.

Thunderstorms are forecast in Multan, Rajanpur and Dera Ghazi Khan, with potential flash floods, urban inundation and rising river levels. Citizens have been cautioned against unnecessary travel and advised keeping children away from flooded zones and live electricity wires. These measures reveal a familiar pattern: repeated warnings, reactive relief and temporary rehabilitation without addressing deeper structural vulnerabilities.

The monsoon destruction is neither accidental nor isolated. Climate change has transformed Pakistan’s rainfall cycles, turning once predictable patterns into volatile, erratic events.

The World Bank and Asian Development Bank’s Climate Risk Country Profile (2021) ranks Pakistan 18th out of 191 countries in terms of overall disaster risk, reflecting its high exposure and limited coping capacity. It is also 8th globally in flood vulnerability, regularly facing riverine floods in the Indus system and flash floods in glacial and hilly regions.

The 2022 floods, one of the most devastating in modern history, submerged a third of Pakistan’s land, displacing 8 million people, killing 1,700 individuals (a third of them children) and causing an estimated $14.9 billion damage, $15.2 billion losses, causing $16.3 billion recovery needs. The hardest-hit sectors were housing at $5.6 billion; agriculture and livestock at $3.7 billion; and transport and communications at $3.3 billion. Sindh alone accounted for 70 percent of the damage.

Pakistan’s vulnerability extends beyond rainfall. The Hindu Kush-Karakoram-Himalayan mountain range, which feeds the Indus River System, is melting at alarming rates. According to MDPI research, between 1992 and 2022, glaciers in the region lost 816 square kilometers (31 percent) of their area, at an average of 27 square kilometres per year. This accelerated melting, driven by rising temperatures and black carbon deposition, threatens long-term water availability for agriculture and drinking.

The rapid siltation of Pakistan’s largest reservoirs is compounding this problem. Tarbela Dam has lost over 40 percent of its designed capacity due to the accumulation of 10 billion tonnes of silt, as reported in 2022. This reduces its ability to store floodwater, regulate irrigation, or generate hydropower. The country is thus not only confronting immediate flood disasters but also long-term structural risks to water security and energy supply.

The World Bank and Asian Development Bank’s Climate Risk Country Profile (2021) ranks Pakistan 18th out of 191 countries in terms of overall disaster risk, reflecting its high exposure and limited coping capacity. 

The crisis does not end with floods. Air pollution, fueled by agricultural burning, industrial emissions and vehicular smoke, has made smog a chronic hazard in the Punjab. Each winter, visibility reduces drastically, halting transportation, damaging lungs and adding yet another layer to Pakistan’s environmental burden. Meanwhile, informal settlements in hazard-prone floodplains and along riverbanks magnify risks during heavy rains, trapping the poorest in cycles of repeated destruction.

Disaster management remains reactive rather than preventive. Relief packages and rescue missions dominate headlines while systemic planning, zoning regulations, and resilient infrastructure remain sidelined. This approach sustains a cycle where each monsoon brings predictable chaos, avoidable casualties and damage running into billions of rupees.

Despite contributing less than 1percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, Pakistan is among the nations hardest-hit by climate disasters. The UN secretary-general, during his 2022 visit, called Pakistan “a victim of climate chaos.” Yet, despite repeated global recognition, climate finance inflows remain limited.

The World Bank’s Country Climate and Development Report for Pakistan highlights that without immediate adaptation and resilience investments, climate shocks could push millions deeper into poverty. The UN’s Loss and Damage Fund and multilateral climate finance mechanisms are designed to support vulnerable nations like Pakistan, but tapping into these requires robust governance, transparent mechanisms and credible adaptation strategies.

Pakistan is often accused of weak institutional coordination, corruption and lack of implementation capacity. If the government can demonstrate transparent disaster risk mapping, climate-smart agriculture programmes and resilient urban infrastructure, it could significantly increase its share of global climate finance.

Pakistan’s climate crisis is a governance challenge as much as it is an environmental one. The repeated cycle of devastation reveals structural anomalies. Disaster management remains reactive rather than preventive. The NDMA is overstretched and focused on post-disaster relief rather than pre-disaster preparedness. Despite mounting data on glacial retreat, rainfall volatility and smog, policies remain politically expedient rather than science-driven. To reverse course, Pakistan must prioritise adaptation and resilience. This includes investing in flood defences, strengthening early-warning systems, expanding water storage, and adopting climate-resilient agriculture. It also requires leveraging international forums, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, to secure climate finance not as charity but as justice.

The latest rain spell that killed nearly 400 people and displaced thousands more, is not just a humanitarian crisis, it is a warning. Climate change is no longer a distant forecast; it is a present catastrophe dismantling homes, livelihoods and infrastructure. Each death in KP’s valleys, each collapsed bridge in Gilgit, each silted reservoir in the Punjab is a reminder that Pakistan stands at the frontline of global climate collapse. If the country continues to treat every monsoon as an isolated disaster rather than a systemic climate challenge, the toll will only rise.

The choice before Pakistan is stark: it can continue the cycle of reactive relief or embrace a transformative agenda that links climate adaptation with governance reform, international finance and sustainable development. The rains will return next year. The question is whether Pakistan will still be counting its dead or have learned to live resiliently with the new climate reality.

Dr Ikram-ul Haq, writer and advocate of the Supreme Court, is an adjunct teacher at Lahore University of Management Sciences.

Abdul Rauf Shakoori is a corporate lawyer based in the USA.