The devastating urban floods that Pakistan has witnessed in recent years are no longer isolated events that can be dismissed as seasonal misfortune. They are symptoms of a deeper malaise in our planning, investment choices, and urban governance

Every monsoon, the same cycle repeats itself. The streets turn into rivers in Rawalpindi and Islamabad as the Lai nullah overflows. In Karachi, outdated drainage systems collapse under the weight of heavy downpours, leaving entire neighbourhoods submerged. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Potohar plateau, flash floods cut through communities where encroachments have blocked the natural flow of rivers and streams. In Gilgit-Baltistan, hotels and restaurants have been built right along riverbanks, in some cases literally on top of them, making human settlements highly vulnerable to glacial melt and torrential rains.

These recurring patterns highlight not only the absence of resilience in our infrastructure but also a worrying trend in how investments continue to flow into projects that amplify risk rather than mitigate it.

Pakistan today stands at a crossroads where the conversation around investment cannot be detached from the realities of climate change. If we continue to build in floodplains, allow construction in ecologically fragile mountain regions, and expand housing societies without basic drainage plans, we will be compounding our vulnerabilities and inviting losses that far outweigh the profits. Climate-smart investment is not simply a catchphrase. It is the need of the hour to safeguard communities, attract sustainable capital and ensure that the real estate and construction sectors are aligned with national climate action.

The role of the real estate and construction industry in this regard is critical. Real estate activities contribute between approximately 5.4 and 5.8 per cent of GDP, while the construction sector adds roughly another 2.3 and 2.8 per cent. It is estimated that real estate alone accounts directly for nearly 2-3 per cent of GDP, with the total broader sector including housing finance, cement and allied industries at around Rs2 trillion annually. This highlights the economic stakes: millions rely on these industries for livelihoods even as they drive urban expansion.

Yet economic........

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