DAWN Editorials - 17th August 2025

[zarnishhayat]

Unprepared nation WEEKS of monsoon rains since late June have culminated in catastrophe.

In just two days, torrential downpours and cloudbursts unleashed flash floods across KP, killing more than 300 people. Entire villages have been erased from the map. A provincial rescue helicopter crashed in Mohmand during operations, claiming the lives of five crew members.

In Azad Kashmir, mudslides buried whole families, while in Gilgit-Baltistan glacier-fed torrents destroyed homes, bridges and farmland. Nationwide, the National Disaster Management Authority has reported at least 645 deaths and 905 injured since the start of the season, with KP bearing the brunt. With fresh rains forecast, the full scale of devastation is yet to be counted.

This is not some freak weather event. Pakistan is enduring the second massive flooding crisis in just three years. The 2022 floods, caused by record monsoon rains, submerged one-third of the country, killed 1,700 people and displaced 33m.

Those floods were described as a “climate catastrophe”, drawing global attention to Pakistan’s vulnerability. Today, the scenes from Buner and Ghizer echo that same nightmare — except the destruction is concentrated in the north, where steep terrain turns cloudbursts into deadly torrents. Could this scale of loss have been prevented? Scientists have long warned that climate change is making Pakistan’s monsoons more erratic, cloudbursts more violent, and glacier melt more destructive.


While no state can stop the rain, much of the tragedy stems from human failure. The Met Department’s Aug 12 advisory did warn of heavy rain in KP, AJK and GB but it was scant on details for preparedness. Then there is the lack of land-use planning and weak enforcement of building restrictions in flood-prone areas. And our disaster response mechanisms leave much to be desired.

With more rain on the way, immediate measures are essential. Relief corridors must be cleared, with the army’s engineering units building temporary bridges and restoring communication lines. Schools and mosques should be converted into evacuation centres, stocked with dry food and medicines. Wireless radios should be distributed where towers are down.

In the longer term, adaptation must be treated as a survival priority, not an afterthought. The state must invest in a national observatory app, providing instant alerts and safety tips. With mobile penetration above 80pc, even simple voice-based or pictorial warnings could save lives. Alongside this, the Met Department must be upgraded with real-time monitoring capacity.

Local governments need to build resilient housing, enforce safe construction zones, and strengthen embankments. Disaster insurance and relocation options for high-risk settlements are also overdue. The floods of 2010, 2022 and now 2025 mark an unbroken chain of escalating disasters. If Pakistan is to break this cycle, adaptation must move from rhetoric to reality. Lives depend on it.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2025

Auto committee ON the face of it, the commerce ministry’s decision to constitute a ‘dedicated’ committee to address the critical challenges facing Pakistan’s struggling car industry is a welcome step. An official statement said that the body, set up after the commerce minister’s meeting with industry representatives, will consist of officials from the commerce and industries ministries and FBR. Though it remains unclear whether the government has notified the committee members, the commerce minister has already ‘tasked’ it with crafting a strategy that protects domestic car assemblers from a potential influx of imported used cars — in case the government allows their commercial import — encourages exports and aligns the industry with national industrial aims. Given the limited autonomy enjoyed by the ministries in a highly centralised governance system in Pakistan, the industry rightly believes that the new body is unlikely to help the local assemblers address their issues.

The commerce minister’s plan to add cars to the country’s list of auto exports, alongside motorcycles and tractors, is ambitious at best and unrealistic at worst owing to the government’s own policy inconsistencies and contradictions. Rhetoric aside, Budget 2026 has already made imported luxury vehicles a lot cheaper, and pushed up the prices of locally assembled cars. Similarly, the planned withdrawal of tariff protections for local carmakers — although a welcome move — risks tilting the playing field against local assemblers because of the very high cost of doing business, driven primarily by government taxes and energy prices. Unless the taxes on locally assembled cars are significantly slashed and the costs of doing business are brought down, the market will be swarming with imported cars, both old and new. It will not matter whether the protections are phased out or dismantled at once. The car industry’s journey through the last four decades underlines the reasons — policy uncertainty, high production costs, tariff and policy protections to powerful lobbies, etc — why Pakistan has failed to industrialise itself, spur market competition, encourage innovation and provide consumers with greater choices. No wonder that few think that the formation of yet another committee can help tackle the structural weaknesses that continue to hobble the auto industry. Without credible long-term policies that reduce crippling production costs and prioritise competitiveness over protectionism, the auto sector will continue to proceed at a sluggish pace.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2025

Relentless bigotry THE dream of transforming Pakistan into a just and progressive nation will remain unfulfilled unless the prevailing extremism is checked. Moreover, no nation can prosper when its minorities live in fear of persecution and violence. In this regard, the Ahmadi community has been facing a sustained campaign of intimidation by violent bigots in Punjab as well as Sindh. The latest in a shameful series of events have been attacks on Ahmadi places of worship and homes in Faisalabad. Under the guise of Independence Day celebrations, a mob, reportedly led by a TLP leader, attacked and set ablaze two worship places of the minority group, while also beating up community members. Nearby homes belonging to Ahmadis were also attacked. Cases have been filed and some suspects detained. But it remains to be seen if those responsible for this outrage will actually be punished.

It is all the more shocking that these condemnable attacks occurred at a time when the nation was celebrating its freedom, and shortly after Pakistan had observed National Minorities Day to mark the Quaid’s Aug 11 speech. The rulers never tire of brandishing their patriotic credentials. Yet it is unfortunate that they forget what the father of the nation said on Aug 11, 1947: “that the first duty of a Government” is to protect “the life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects”. In the same epic speech, Mr Jinnah observed that citizens of Pakistan are free to go to their temples, mosques “or to any other places of worship”. Sadly, the state has forgotten this sage advice, and has given violent extremists the space to do as they please — letting them attack and rob Pakistan’s non-Muslims of their rights and dignity. The federal and Punjab governments must put a stop to these violent attacks and protect the lives and properties of minority citizens. Left unchecked, the ogre of extremism will tear society apart.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2025