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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has launched a $10 million World Bank–backed project to modernize its early flood warning and weather forecasting network, aimed at strengthening national disaster preparedness and climate resilience, state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported on Tuesday.

The announcement comes after one of Pakistan’s deadliest monsoon seasons in years, which has killed at least 1,037 people nationwide and damaged nearly 2.5 million acres of farmland, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). Torrential rains have repeatedly inundated vast areas of Punjab and Sindh, destroying homes, crops and infrastructure, and underscoring the country’s urgent need for modern forecasting systems.

The new initiative, titled “Modernization of Hydromet Services of Pakistan (MHSP),” is being implemented by the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) under the World Bank–funded Integrated Flood Resilience Adaptation Project (IFRAP). It seeks to strengthen climate resilience by improving the PMD’s capacity to generate, interpret and disseminate accurate hydrometeorological data.

“The MHSP will mark a key milestone in Pakistan’s disaster preparedness and climate resilience, providing timely and precise weather forecasts essential for agriculture, water resource management, and disaster risk reduction across the country,” a senior Planning Ministry official was quoted as saying in an APP report.

Led by the Ministry of Planning, the project has been allocated Rs2.99 billion ($10.8 million) under the FY2025–26 Public Sector Development Programme. 

According to project details reported by APP, the plan includes the installation of 110 automatic weather stations, four fixed weather surveillance radars, and a high-performance computing system to improve real-time monitoring and forecasting accuracy. 

The project also involves the modernization of the Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics and the Meteorological Workshop in Karachi, the establishment of Regional Climate Data Processing Centers and the development of a National Framework for Climate Services and a National Hydromet Policy.

As of September 2025, procurement for automatic weather stations has been finalized, while the technical evaluation of radar and system integrator consultancies is underway. The PMD has also sought tax exemptions and supplementary funding of $42 million to address increased market costs and a financing gap identified during project execution.

Officials said the MHSP forms part of Pakistan’s broader effort to enhance flood forecasting and disaster management capacity after a series of devastating monsoon seasons that have exposed weaknesses in existing early warning systems.

Floods in 2022 killed at least 1,700 people and caused over $30 million in damages. 

ISLAMABAD: A top business body in Pakistan’s commercial capital, Karachi, has issued an urgent security advisory to its members following a sharp uptick in extortion threats, warning traders to install CCTV systems as cases of intimidation and violence rise across the city.

In a circular dated October 4 and seen by Arab News, the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) said business owners have reported receiving “extortion chits accompanied by bullets, with demands for heavy extortion money,” describing the situation as “extremely alarming.”

“The recordings of such CCTV footage may be shared with KCCI, enabling the Chamber to escalate the matter to the concerned authorities with concrete evidence to ensure swift action and the arrest of those involved in such heinous crimes,” the letter read.

The advisory comes amid growing concerns from Karachi’s trader and industrialist community, many of whom say extortion attempts once quelled by years of security operations have made a troubling comeback in recent weeks.

“There has been a surge in the incidents of extortion in recent weeks, which prompted us to bring the issue to the attention of the authorities as well as alert our members and ask them to install CCTV cameras,” Javed Bilwani, President of

KCCI, told Arab News. “But we believe that the menace of extortion cannot be eliminated until the Safe City project is completed.”

Bilwani said complaints had been received from a broad cross-section of Karachi’s business community, including traders, builders and industrialists, with extortion threats targeting both commercial and residential premises.

“They advised us to issue a circular and raise awareness among our members,” Bilwani said, referring to security officials without naming anyone. “That they should install cameras in their houses, in their businesses, in their industries. Builders should install cameras in their buildings.”

In a video statement shared with the media, Atiq Mir, President of the Karachi Tajir Ittehad (Traders Alliance), warned that Karachi’s merchants were again “at the mercy of extortionists.”

“Most of the shops and shopkeepers are getting calls. Bullets are being wrapped in sheets and sent,” Mir said, adding that the callers even threaten children of members of the business community.

Mir called on senior officials, including the Sindh chief minister and the Inspector General of Police, to take urgent action.

 “In the past, thousands of people left Karachi and went away,” he added. “Even now, it should not be the case that relocation resumes and this city becomes a complete jungle.”

Former senior counterterrorism officer Raja Umar Khattab said authorities must investigate such calls systematically.

“The police should not simply label these incidents as hoax calls. They need to classify and investigate them,” Khattab told Arab News. “Questions the police should ask include how genuine the threat is, how the money was demanded, what was delivered, and what message was received.”

Khattab noted that while modern-day extortionists often operate on a smaller scale than in the past, they still pose a serious challenge.

“Nowadays, they sometimes simulate violence,” he said. “They may show a picture of a bullet to intimidate people.”

According to Khattab, many threats are now issued through WhatsApp using foreign SIMs, especially from Iran and Afghanistan, making them harder to trace.

“Calls from Iranian or Afghan SIMs are hard to stop at the source, but local operatives, the ‘foot soldiers’ who collect money here can be caught.”

He dismissed any current involvement of militant groups, saying the extortion racket is being driven by organized criminal gangs, some led by known ringleaders who have rebuilt networks after being released from jail.

 “These are criminal gangs,” he emphasized. “This is an extortion and organized crime issue, not terrorism.”

A Karachi police spokesperson did not respond to repeated requests for comment.