A landslide near Jhika Gali in Murree has prompted Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to order heightened vigilance across the hill station, as relief teams worked through the weekend to clear debris and support affected residents. The directive marks the latest in a string of monsoon-related interventions the chief minister has personally overseen this season, reflecting how seriously provincial authorities are treating the risk of further slope failures in Murree’s steep, densely built terrain.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!According to officials, Rescue 1122 personnel and Scouts volunteers carried out relief activities in the affected area under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner Murree, Zaheer Abbas Shirazi. The chief minister sought a detailed report on the situation and commended the district administration, along with Rescue 1122 officers, for what she described as a timely and safe response. She went on to direct that strict monitoring be maintained across Murree given the continuing possibility of additional landslides as monsoon rains persist.
“Standing with the people in every difficult time is the essence of good governance,” Maryam Nawaz said, a line that has framed much of her public messaging around this year’s monsoon response.
A Season of Near-Constant Vigilance
The Murree landslide alert is not an isolated episode. Earlier in the week, the chief minister chaired a high-level meeting in Lahore where she placed multiple departments on high alert and ordered full mobilisation of personnel and machinery to handle urban flooding, hill torrents and flood emergencies. Among the specific measures were precautionary evacuations in landslide-prone parts of Murree and instructions for authorities to warn tourists about the risks through repeated public announcements, according to a report by Pakistan Observer.
Those directives extended well beyond Murree. The chief minister also ordered advance flood warnings and evacuation planning for Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan, where hill torrents and urban flooding pose a separate risk, and directed power distribution companies including LESCO to address dangling electric wires blamed for a string of electrocution deaths. District flood control rooms have been instructed to operate around the clock, and Punjab has also rolled out drone monitoring of rivers, barrages and headworks for the first time this season, intended to give authorities earlier warning of rising water levels, ProPakistani reported.
Rainwater Cleared Within Hours, CM Says
Separately, and on the same day the Murree landslide alert was issued, Maryam Nawaz said the province’s monsoon preparedness had allowed authorities to clear rainwater from roads, markets and residential areas within hours, despite ten consecutive days of heavy rain across Punjab. She attributed the response to expanded Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) operations now active in 41 districts, backed by more than a thousand dewatering sets and sucker machines, along with hundreds of thousands of tonnes of desilting work carried out ahead of the monsoon season, according to Pakistan Today.
The contrast between the two updates is notable: relatively swift drainage success in the province’s urban centres, set against a slower-moving, harder-to-predict landslide risk in the hills. Officials have separately reported partial landslides and fallen trees in Murree and nearby Kahuta amid the ongoing wet spell, underscoring that even routine monsoon rainfall can destabilise slopes that have already absorbed days of continuous water.
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What This Means
The Murree landslide alert highlights a structural challenge that recurs almost every monsoon season: hill stations built on steep, geologically unstable terrain face landslide risk that cannot be engineered away as easily as urban waterlogging. Punjab’s expanded WASA capacity and drone-based river monitoring represent genuine investments in flood response, but slope stability in places like Jhika Gali depends heavily on terrain, construction density and rainfall intensity — factors that are far harder to manage in real time than street-level drainage.
For Murree’s local economy, which depends heavily on tourist traffic through the summer and monsoon months, repeated landslide warnings carry a practical cost. Advisories urging tourists to avoid the area, even when framed cautiously, can affect footfall for hotels, restaurants and transport operators during peak season. That tension between public safety messaging and local livelihoods is one provincial officials will likely keep navigating as the monsoon continues.
The more immediate question is whether the current spell of rain in the hills eases or intensifies over the coming days. If rainfall persists at similar levels, the “strict monitoring” the chief minister has ordered will need to translate into concrete steps — inspection of vulnerable slopes, road closures where warranted, and clear, timely communication to both residents and visitors — rather than a one-time response to this week’s incident. Given Punjab’s track record this season of issuing frequent, department-specific directives, further updates on Murree’s landslide-prone zones are likely in the days ahead.
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