Is Pakistan flood catastrophe linked only to climate change?

The Pakistan government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has washed its hands of its responsibility and blamed climate change for the floods in the country, but the reality is that it failed in providing a quick response, which could have mitigated the catastrophe enormously.

The government gave due credit to global warming and climate change, but there was more to it than what met the eye. Pakistan could have avoided the worst crisis of the decade, but it was preoccupied with political wrangling when the alarm bells first rang, according to a Karachi-based journalist in the local news outlet

 The Nation. Let’s do a quick rewind. The unprecedented rains began in mid-June. A state of emergency was declared by the government on August 25. Soon after, lives began to get affected by the flash floods, and the political parties in Pakistan started to run their PR campaigns. 

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan turned the plight of the people into a PR stunt. Khan made hollow claims to raise millions. It was all very murky. 

The Nation reported that there is no information available in the public domain on the spending of the amounts collected.

They made money from the donations the political parties received from various charities and various NGOs. There were a few who were affected more than others. The cities of Nowshera and Charsadda, in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (formerly Northwest Frontier province), and their suburbs were the first major communities to be hit by the unprecedented floods. 

The flash floods left about 7 million homeless this summer. The actual numbers are much higher than the government data. Infrastructure was destroyed and families, including pregnant women and infants, were swept away. It is the worst-ever natural disaster in the country to date.