DAWN Editorials 2nd August 2026

Urban flooding

THE warning from the disaster management and weather authorities that a new monsoon spell could trigger urban flooding in major cities across Punjab and Sindh is yet another reminder of how poorly prepared our cities are for heavy rainfall.

Cities from Rawalpindi, Lahore and Multan in Punjab, to Hyderabad, Umerkot and Tando Allahyar in Sindh, have been flagged for urban flooding. This is not unusual during the monsoons. However, what makes this year’s warning worth pausing on is the Met Office’s forecast of below normal rainfall this year. Still, less rainfall will not eliminate the risk of flooded cities if a burst of rain arrives faster than the ground and drains can carry it away. This says more about the state of our cities than about the weather.

The problem of urban flooding in Pakistan is no longer limited to low-lying neighbourhoods. It has become a structural feature of how the country has grown and urban centres have developed. Unplanned construction has taken place over drainage channels and wetlands that once absorbed rain. Waterways have been encroached upon, storm-water systems are built for outdated rainfall patterns, and drains are choked with solid waste that no longer has any place to go.

The response is reactive across the provinces. Drains are cleared only when the rain starts to fall; pumps arrive after roads are under water; and warnings are issued, repeated, then forgotten until the next spell. This is crisis management dressed up as preparedness. Most Pakistani cities have no comprehensive flood-risk maps, no functioning drainage master plans, and no clear chain of command for who acts first as the water rises. Drainage, roads, water supply and disaster response sit in separate departments that rarely coordinate before a flood and mostly trade blame after one.

Climate change has broken the old planning assumptions. Cities now need infrastructure built for short, intense downpours capable of overwhelming drains within minutes, not the gradual rainfall patterns those systems were designed around decades ago. Every new road, housing scheme or commercial project should be assessed for how it disrupts the natural water flow before approval, not after the damage becomes visible. Existing drains need redesigning and expanding to match current rainfall intensity, rather than being patched up just before the monsoon.

Pakistan cannot control how much rain falls. But it can control the extent to which the rain turns into a disaster. The recent warning is not a new problem; each year, governments assure the public that they are ready for the rains. Unfortunately, the very first intense downpour exposes their claims. What the country needs is sustained investment in drainage infrastructure and local governments to maintain it between the monsoons, not just during the rainy season.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2026

Fatal workplaces

THE methane explosion near Quetta that killed 34 coal miners is the latest entry in Pakistan’s long register of preventable workplace deaths. The men were trapped between 760m and 1,200m underground after interconnected mines collapsed; most came from Shangla, and 23 belonged to one village. Some were sons of miners lost in earlier accidents, a cruel inheritance created by poverty and official neglect. An inquiry and Rs500,000 compensation have been announced, but neither answers the central question: why were workers allowed into a mine without safeguards capable of detecting and dispersing methane, ensuring ventilation, maintaining alternative exits and mounting a rapid rescue? The investigation must establish when the mine was last inspected, whether gas monitors worked, what violations had been recorded and who authorised operations. Its findings must be published, and negligence must carry criminal and financial consequences. Otherwise, the familiar ritual will repeat itself: condolences, cheques, a committee, and silence once the graves have been filled.

That ritual is not confined to mining. More than 260 workers died in the Baldia factory fire, where a perilous workplace became a death trap. Twenty-nine workers were killed in the 2016 Gadani shipbreaking inferno, while labourers in stone-crushing units continue to contract fatal silicosis amid weak enforcement and inadequate medical support. Different industries, hazards and provinces; the governing culture is the same. Employers cut costs, inspectors overlook violations, workers desperate for wages accept risks, and the state intervenes only after mass casualties. Pakistan needs more than sector-specific inquiries. Provincial governments must enforce modern occupational safety laws across mines, factories, construction sites, shipbreaking yards and hazardous workshops; register workers and establishments; publish inspection and accident records; and protect labourers who report unsafe conditions. Independent audits should be mandatory for high-risk enterprises, repeat offenders should be closed, and compensation should reflect lost earnings and dependants’ needs. Unregistered workers and bereaved families must not be left outside pension, insurance and statutory compensation systems because employers failed to document them. Until preventable deaths cost negligent owners and officials more than compliance would have, our workplaces will remain sites where poverty is exploited and mourning becomes routine.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2026

Dual standards

IT appears that the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party has fallen foul of the Election Commission of Pakistan. A five-member ECP bench, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, has refused to recognise Mehmood Khan Achakzai as PkMAP chairman. The party’s last intra-party elections were held in December 2022. Under PkMAP’s constitution, the term was for three years, so fresh polls were due by December 2025, and the PkMAP failed in this regard. Fair enough. A party’s internal democracy is essential. Leaders who treat their parties as personal fiefdoms undermine the very democracy they claim to champion. PkMAP’s failure is, therefore, indefensible on its merits. Yet one cannot help but also consider the merits of the messenger. After all, the CEC’s constitutional five-year term expired on Jan 26, 2025. Does the ECP need reminding that Article 215(4) requires vacancies in the offices of CEC and ECP members to be filled within 45 days?

The 26th Amendment had allowed the incumbents to continue until a successor was appointed, but this was intended as a stop-gap measure, not a licence for indefinite tenure. However, neither the CEC nor the other members appear to have felt any moral compulsion to step aside, despite having vastly overstayed their constitutional tenure. The result is that we have an ECP being led by officials who have served well beyond their original tenure while they strictly enforce electoral calendars on political parties. And this is not to mention the many prima facie violations of rules, procedures and laws, including of the Constitution itself, that the ECP has committed. This ‘rules for thee but not for me’ policy can, therefore, not be taken seriously. Now that Mr Achakzai’s notification as Leader of the Opposition has removed one procedural hurdle to fresh appointments in the ECP, the government has no excuse for failing to initiate the consultation process. It is time it appointed fresh faces to the Commission.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2026