ISLAMABAD – The federal government of Pakistan, in collaboration with UN-Habitat Pakistan, launched high-level national consultations on May 17, 2026, to formulate the country's first-ever National Urban Strategy. The landmark initiative aims to safeguard rapidly expanding urban centers from escalating climate vulnerabilities, including devastating flash floods, intense heatwaves, critical water shortages, and unchecked, unregulated construction.
The collaborative framework was established during a national workshop organized alongside the
Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination. The move comes amid rising public concern over recurring urban disasters, spanning from the catastrophic Swat floodplain destructions to regular monsoon inundations in Karachi and fatal flooding incidents within upscale housing societies in Islamabad.
Rapid Urban Expansion Outpacing Climate Safety
Presiding over the session, Climate Change Secretary Aisha Humera Moriani warned that Pakistan’s urban growth is aggressively outpacing its infrastructure capacity. With over 36% of Pakistanis currently living in cities—a figure projected to cross 50% within two decades—she noted that major cities are transforming into dangerous urban heat islands and flood traps.
“Our cities are becoming urban heat islands, flood traps and water-stressed zones because climate risks were never integrated into the way we planned and governed them,” Moriani stated, emphasizing that no singular national framework currently exists to systematically manage these interconnected crises.
Systemic Planning Failures and Governance Crises
Senior Joint Secretary Muhammad Ijaz Ghani directly linked recent localized disasters to poor urban governance and spatially blind construction. He cited several high-profile infrastructure failures as urgent wake-up calls for nationwide reform:
The Swat River Tragedy: Commercial hotels and guesthouses were built illegally directly on natural floodplains without zoning safeguards.
Islamabad Housing Schemes: Recent drowning incidents in a DHA underpass and flooding in Sector E-11 prove that modern architectural grandeur cannot compensate for absent hydraulic planning.
Karachi Monsoon Vulnerabilities: The provincial capital's decayed drainage infrastructure remains incapable of handling even moderate rainfall, resulting in preventable deaths from electrocution and structural collapses.
A Coordinated Roadmap for Green Infrastructure
To counter these compound threats, UN-Habitat Pakistan climate expert Khalil Ahmed emphasized shifting away from fragmented institutional responses toward a unified national framework. The forthcoming strategy will introduce strict riverine zoning rules, climate-sensitive spatial planning, and enhanced environmental assessment mechanisms.
Ministry officials, including Urban Affairs Director Muhammad Azim Khoso, called for the immediate, strict enforcement of the Pakistan Green Building Codes 2023. Moving forward, future infrastructure projects must prioritize energy conservation, water-saving technologies, and community-led climate advocacy to effectively protect public health and minimize compounding economic losses.
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