The cacophony of rhetoric fuelled by the elections reveals the stance, policy and mindset of the actors in this political drama. But at some point the day-to-day business of running this country of ours must begin. And staring us in the face are two issues which we can no longer ignore: the environment and urban planning.
The UN estimates that at the moment some 35 per cent of Pakistanis live in “urban areas” — a term of little precision – and that, in another ten years, more than half of Pakistan will make its home and pursue its livelihood in these urban areas. Some argue that the figures underestimate what’s really going on, and that Pakistan’s population has already become more than 50 per cent urbanised. In either case, the importance of urban planning can no longer be ignored. Our cities are the homes of millions upon millions of us, and their governance and control are now of crucial importance.
Urban planning also indirectly affects every Pakistani. The demands of any urban area — be they for food, energy, water, construction material — translate, in effect, to import orders for commodities like wheat and sugar and requisitions for manpower in the form of cheap labour. If the demands of our cities begin to strain the rest of the country, something must be done.
By the same token, if most of Pakistan lives in urban areas, then it is the imperatives that drive these urban areas that affect our environment. We need more electricity because of the sudden birth of a consumer class, most of it urban. We need waste-management solutions and alternatives to spilling our filth into our rivers because of the consumption of people living in urban areas. Most of the CO2 emissions produced come either from an industry supplying its goods for consumption in urban areas, from transport carrying goods to and from our cities or from the thousands of new cars leased and brought onto our cities’ roads every day.
The regulation of our environment and the planning of our urban areas are inextricably linked, and it is high time the ruling elite recognised this.
There is little that passes for sensible urban planning in Pakistan. Our cities are still governed by minds that grew up in a rustic — and essentially rural — Pakistan. They are still perceived as places of wonder, of opportunity. They most certainly are. Cities are one of the most remarkable achievements of human civilisation. But they must be governed by minds cognisant of the complexities of a city.
Take the urban planning of Lahore, for example. This city of many millions is governed by a city administration and nine town administrations. At the same time, the Lahore Development Authority manages whatever falls within the bounds of its controlled Area. Then there is the cantonment, a unique feature of colonial rule, run, technically speaking, by a cantonment board comprising the officer commanding the station and a mix of elected representatives. There is then the Defence Housing Authority, which is run by a complex hierarchy of a governing body headed by the corps commander, an executive board headed by the GOC, 11 Division, and an authority run by an administrator. Over and above this, the Parks and Horticulture Authority of the government of Punjab, in purported exercise of a dubious mandate to “keep the city clean,” also claims the power to determine what goes on.
Astonishingly, these diverse entities all operate exclusively of one another. The Water and Sanitation Agency of the LDA — the people responsible for the supply of clean drinking water — don’t know where to turn when the PHA pumps clean drinking water to sprinkle on the fauna in GOR I. The cantonment and the DHA, on the other hand, get their drinking water from wells tapping straight into the city’s water table. And the WASA has no control over this water usage. The Gulberg Town administration can’t get the DHA to return its calls of concern: the traffic to and from the DHA, which has the highest number of cars per person in the city, enters and exits the rest of Lahore from Gulberg Town, and it’s the Gulberg Town administration that has to foot the bill for road maintenance and reconstruction. Not that it has jurisdiction to undertake any serious road construction work. That jurisdiction is claimed by the Traffic and Engineering Agency of the LDA, unless the road construction money comes from an ADB loan, in which case the Communication and Works Department of the government of Punjab is loath to relinquish its control over handing out sub-contracts.
The LDA doesn’t ask the permission of the local government before it sets out implementing a new development plan, even though all city government and town administrations sit on the board of the LDA. Everyone knows that the LDA is run, through its director general and a host of ex-officio members of the Punjab bureaucracy, by the chief minister. When I went to pick up this year’s budget estimates from the LDA office, I had to wait a week while the budget summary got the CM’s signature of approval.
And these things are just the tip of the iceberg. What of the solid waste? What of housing? What of the homeless or the slums. If most of Pakistan lives in cities, then most of the millions upon millions are poor and need shelter. So far, our cities have been unable to rise to the challenge. Even though every town nazim in Lahore you meet will answer, almost as if synchronised, that solid waste management is at the top of their priorities, the city has done nothing about it. On the other hand, the provincial government is finalising its plan to construct three Rapid Mass Transit lines in the city. Of the many types of mass transit, the underground-overground train system proposed is the most expensive, and yet the plan is thin on how it will get automobile users out of their cars and into the new public transport.
Part of this inefficiency has to do with the confusing and overlapping jurisdictions of the many authorities that run the city. These create hurdles in legitimate voices being heard by the right ears. Part has to do with the fact that financial control of the city remains in the hands of the provincial government. What business does a provincial government have in constructing an underpass in one of its cities? None, and the sole reason they do is the publicity associated with billion-rupee development projects. And because of the confusion of responsibility and centralisation of financial control, our cities are growing haphazardly and unsustainably.
The importance of urban planning and its far-reaching effects on our environment have to be understood by the ruling elite. One can only hope that this election will return some sense to our Assemblies. The dance of politics is an amusing distraction, but our future and the lives of millions are at stake.
The writer is an advocate of the high court and a member of the adjunct faculty at LUMS. He has an interest in urban planning. Email: ralam@nexlinx.net.pk
Courtesy: the News, 21/2/2008
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