The study reveals that while the government has instituted a comprehensive DRR governance system in Pakistan on paper, in reality the system suffers from a lack of political commitment, funding, skilled human resources, and coordination and suffers from fragmentation, and overlapping and unclear mandates among government agencies horizontally and vertically. The system is especially weak the local district levels where the bulk of implementation occurs. The national DRR system also focuses mainly on response and ignores other more sustainable and durable dimensions of DRR, such as prevention and mitigation which can address the root causes of disaster risk within the country, which because of its geographical diversity is vulnerable to a large range of physical hazards, such as floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, and cyclones. Government programs and policies often end up reducing people’s resilience by increasing their exposure to physical hazards. The malpractices of local elites reduce people’s access to resources and information and increase their exposure to physical hazards.