Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said in the National Assembly that any climate change in the country is due to “our own actions”.

He said the recent floods were the third or fourth major “catastrophe” in the country in the last 12 or 15 years.

“With that, we have done value addition that we created hotels and houses on waterways, the main route and path of the river has been encroached and presumed that it’s a sewer so housing colonies can be made here.

“So I want to state that this is a time for self-accountability, that when you encroach or invite it or allow any person … and make such [housing] schemes, then nature reacts.”

He said in all of Pakistan, from the cloudbursts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the rains in Punjab, the natural jurisdiction of rivers was interfered with by humans.