ISLAMABAD: Over 300 people died, millions were displaced, and infrastructure worth billions of dollars was damaged in the recent floods in Pakistan, which could have been prevented if the Islamabad government had learnt from the similar crisis of 2022 and taken corrective measures. Experts and affected people are blaming the Pakistani authorities for the late and inadequate response, poor facilities and a lethargic attitude.
At least 312 people, including 142 children, have died in the heavy monsoon rains and flash floods since June 26, revealed Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). “We are homeless now. The government only gave us food rations worth 50,000 rupees (around 150 euros) and seven tents that we have been living in for two weeks”, said 50-year-old Saqib Hassan from North Pakistan. While the entire country was affected, Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir were the worst-hit regions.
Although Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa experienced the flood-related damages to a greater extent, not a single relief camp was set up there. “Criminal neglect, twisted priorities, and a catastrophic failure to protect human life, that’s what the SWAT floods have exposed. Local administration & provincial government must face the music for this tragedy. Our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims,” said former parliamentarian and leader from North Waziristan, Mohsin Dawar.
The flash floods exposed Pakistan’s vulnerability to the government’s poor disaster response, said Islamabad-based legal expert and activist Amanullah Lak. “Despite repeated warnings and the increasing frequency of such disasters, authorities remain unprepared, with slow rescue efforts and a lack of basic emergency systems,” he said. “While officials continue to make promises about tackling climate challenges, little is done on the ground. The growing gap between rhetoric and action is putting more lives at risk and unless real steps are taken, these tragedies will only intensify.”
Several affected people shared videos of their suffering on social media. NDMA has been criticised for failing to respond in time, even as the torrential rains caused the displacement of millions of people. This has led people of Pakistan to express their anguish over the negligence. Fahida Yusufzai erupted in anger as cars, bridges, and buildings were washed away by flooding. “Even the Karakoram Highway — Pakistan’s pride — snapped in two! This isn’t “natural disaster.” It’s engineered neglect. A regime that spends billions on nukes, but can’t protect one road from rain,” she said.
UK-based Pakistani Aftaab Mughal said the massive floods were not nature’s wrath but the Pakistan government’s failure. “Neglected roads, broken infrastructure, no emergency response, just silence. Broken roads, no disaster response, collapsing infrastructure, this is Pakistan’s idea of governance. Nature punishes, but Islamabad abandons,” Mughal said. “Floods may be natural, but the resulting destruction is because of neglect. Roads collapse because they were never built to last. Relief fails because governance was never built at all. This is not nature’s wrath. It’s Pakistan’s failure.”
Senior journalist Asem Mustafa Awan blamed corruption and negligence by Pakistani officials and politicians for the current crisis. “What the country faces today is not a freak disaster, nor an unexpected calamity. It is a recurring collapse, born of policy failure and hardened by indifference,” he said. “Villages are bracing for another round of evacuations. But the disaster management machinery remains underfunded, undermanned, and unmotivated. Lessons were never learned, because those in charge never had to suffer.”
Awan said the international aid received in 2022 was not used for relief, as many of those displaced remained where the waters left them. “The relief goods intended for them surfaced not in camps, but in markets. Government warehouses, stocked with essentials, failed to distribute them in time, if at all,” he said. “Most of the national budget goes into elite subsidies and debt servicing, not disaster resilience. The contrast is criminal. The state watches its citizens sink, literally and metaphorically, while the powerful profit from every stage of the crisis — from construction contracts to relief theft.”
People in Pakistan are scared of the government’s helplessness in protecting them from floods. “Pakistan is bleeding. Children cried for their parents. Fathers prayed for a miracle. One by one, lives were lost to the floods — not by nature, but by criminal state negligence,” said Mohammed Saleem Karachi resident and mother of three, Saima, is anxious over how to deal with the deluge, while Lahore-based shopkeeper Ahmed Raza asked with frustration, “Every year, we lose business to flooding. Why aren’t we ready?”
Dr Syed Akhtar Ali Shah, former Secretary to the Pakistan government, said the crisis-response model, the cycle of neglect and lack of accountability, were responsible for the recurrence of tragedies that could be prevented. “Committees are formed, inquiries ordered, officials reshuffled, and then, slowly but surely, the status quo resumes. This has desensitised us to disasters that are, in most countries, manageable or at least mitigable. No one is held accountable, and blame is passed around like a bureaucratic football.
Views: 171
