Not too long ago, the outskirts of Karachi had dense mangroves. Often, in the early mornings, you could see rowers powering through their boats just as the sun was rising. But the habitat has changed since then: unfettered urbanisation and an obsession with ugly concrete structures have done immeasurable damage to the city’s ecology. Fortunately and unfortunately, we are far from the only one. As a country, Pakistan has seen steady deforestation, with forest cover consistently declining from 6.5 per cent in 1990 to 4.7pc by 2023.

The impact has been hard to miss. In the last two decades, each one of us has experienced it firsthand: summers have become longer, rains more intense and winters extreme. It’s concerning, to say the least. But none of the consequences have been as tragic as the fact that our bankers can’t touch grass at all.

This disconnect from reality was echoing loud at the Pakistan Banking Summit where the bankers poured their hearts out and tried to raise awareness about their unfair treatment.

In the context of Pakistani banking, the actual indicator to focus on is investments, which reached Rs27.9 trillion by 2024, representing 93pc of all deposits. This is........

© Dawn Business