ISLAMABAD; Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has constituted a 13-member high-level committee tasked with devising strategies to strengthen Pakistan’s resilience against extreme weather events such as cloudbursts, flash floods, and urban flooding.
The committee, headed by Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal, includes senior federal ministers, secretaries, technical experts, and key stakeholders. Its mandate is to review existing disaster management systems, evaluate vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure, and recommend measures to address environmental and urban challenges.
According to an official notification issued by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, the committee will assess flood protection and drainage infrastructure, explore financing avenues, including climate finance, for major Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) projects, and propose legal frameworks to counter deforestation and environmental degradation.
It will also focus on strengthening early warning systems, including the installation of modern radars, and enhancing the capacity of disaster management authorities at both federal and provincial levels, particularly the NDMA. The committee is required to present its report to the prime minister within 10 days.
Alongside this, a policy dialogue forum has also been established to engage provincial governments, federal ministries, semi-government organizations, civil society, and the media in shaping short, medium, and long-term strategies for climate adaptation and disaster mitigation.
This forum, which will meet fortnightly, comprises federal ministers for climate change, communications, and water resources, advisers to the PM, provincial irrigation and environment secretaries, the NDMA chairman, and the DG of the Pakistan Meteorological Department.
The forum will monitor the preparedness of authorities, evaluate financial needs for water reservoirs and flood mitigation projects, review drainage schemes, and oversee the restoration of natural waterways by removing encroachments. It will also propose stricter legislation against deforestation and work on upgrading forecasting systems to improve monsoon predictions and urban flood management.
