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Shehbaz Orders Federal Emergency Response Committee to Ready Pakistan for Monsoon

Centralizing monsoon response to mobilize funds, to clear waterways, to protect remittance flows, to ready provinces for forecasted extreme heat and above-normal July rainfall.

Overview

  • Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who chaired a high-level meeting on Wednesday, ordered a federal Emergency Response Committee led by the planning minister to coordinate monsoon response with provincial authorities.
  • The NDMA warned meeting participants that Pakistan faces prolonged heatwaves and above-normal rainfall in July and said contingency arrangements are being put in place.
  • The planning committee will meet weekly and the finance minister was told to prepare advance arrangements for an emergency fund that can be mobilized for monsoon-related disasters.
  • The prime minister directed immediate province-level reviews, removal of river and channel encroachments, and a comprehensive flood-management roadmap while noting an additional Rs330 billion this fiscal year for water projects.
  • Shehbaz asked the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation to present a welfare roadmap for expatriates whose remittances underpin the economy and officials said protecting those inflows will help cushion households and public finances during extreme-weather shocks.