Global climate patterns are changing the seasonal weather of the South Asian region. The Pakistan Meteorological Department has issued an alert for heavy rains and stormy winds across the country. This warning is an absolute indication that the monsoon season is knocking regularly in Pakistan. Rain in extreme heat is a blessing of nature that provides relief to the public suffering from heatwaves and is a sign of life for agriculture. However, due to poor planning, low climate adaptation budgets, incompetence of institutions, poor infrastructure and lack of advance arrangements, this blessing of nature turns into a terrible hardship and national tragedy every year for Pakistan. Looking at this situation, it seems that the relevant authorities lack early warning preparedness and intuition to deal with a big challenge.

A recent dreadful incident of this alarming indifference is the pre-monsoon rains in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the past few days. As an outcome of just one day of heavy rainfall, seven deaths were reported and more than 30 people were injured. Normal life has been paralysed due to roofs collapsing, power lines breaking and water accumulating on the roads. This shows that government claims are grand, but preparedness on the ground is zero. If a few hours of rain before the regular onset of the monsoon can cause such a huge loss of life and property in Pakistan, what will be the scale of the disaster if the monsoon rains are heavier than normal this year? Do we have any plan to prevent this potential disaster?

Currently, Pakistan has a........

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