A tale of two cities (Part I) by Ahmad Rafay Alam

 Ahmad Rafay Alam  Comments Off
Nov 102008
 

The chief minister of Punjab has requested NESPAK to come up with a way to widen Lahore’s canal road without cutting down any of the trees that line the only avenue of its kind in the world. Ostensibly, this is to cater to the increased congestion and automobile traffic that uses the now signal-free corridor through most of the city. The request made to NESPAK comes months after members of civil society were privately assured that the canal road widening plan would not be pursued by the Sharif government. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 8:31 am

On parks- By Ahmad Rafay Alam

 Ahmad Rafay Alam  Comments Off
Nov 032008
 

The world’s first public park, Peel Park, was opened in Salford, Greater Manchester, in 1864. It was the first of three public parks opened that year, all of which had been financed by public subscription. The reasons why these and other public parks were created carry important lessons for anyone concerned with the state of our cities. Our regressive attitude towards the public park and other community or green spaces can be understood only when the social and political context of the urban public park is considered. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 7:50 am

Gardens- By Ahmad Rafay Alam

 Ahmad Rafay Alam, News & Articles  Comments Off
Oct 272008
 

Though the first Islamic tomb-garden in India is Sikandar Lodi’s, it was the Mughals who used it to much greater dramatic affect. Aware that the founder of the dynasty has died in Kabul and that the second emperor had spent most of his time as an exile, the third Mughal emperor, Akbar, saw to it that the burial site of his father, the Emperor Humayun, made an unequivocal political statement: the Mughal was not a marauding nomad, he was in India to stay and had chosen its soil as his eternal resting place. Then, in the tradition of the great Persian and Islamic-style garden, Akbar went about ensuring the area resembled paradise. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 8:24 am

The farce of ignoring the obvious

 Ahmad Rafay Alam, News & Articles  Comments Off
Oct 202008
 

Ahmad Rafay AlamWe have become so used to the way our cities are run that we often overlook the obvious and begin to treat glaring anomalies as normal. The farcical manner in which the public’s money is wasted on the pretext of developing and beautifying the city of Lahore and improving transport and congestion would be funny – downright hysterical, in fact – if it weren’t so negligent.
Continue reading »

 Posted by at 8:44 am

The beginning of the Talibanization of Lahore?

 Ahmad Rafay Alam, News & Articles  Comments Off
Oct 132008
 

By Ahmad Rafay AlamA significant event passed by relatively unnoticed last week when media reported that traders on Lahore’s Hall Road deliberately set alight thousands of pornographic VCDs and DVDs. The Anjuman-e-Tajiran had resolved to weed out the “objectionable” media after vendors in the area reported receiving anonymous letters and phone calls threatening them of dire consequences if the sale of such “obscene” material continued. The event was widely reported, but the obvious undercurrents did not surface. I learnt of the burning when a local TV station carried an interview of a video trader insisting only a handful of the hundreds of outlets at Lahore’s hub of trade in pirated video indulged in selling pornographic material. A study of the undercurrents of this event are quite disturbing. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 8:54 am

Real estate redux- by Ahmad Rafay Alam

 Ahmad Rafay Alam, Real estate  5 Responses »
Sep 082008
 

A recent article about the future of the real estate market in Pakistan threw me off completely. It quoted a real estate agent stating that the slump in the Pakistani real estate market was a unique opportunity to invest in Pakistan before an expected upsurge later this year. This statement flies in the face of reason and deserves to be looked at rationally. As does the real estate sector in Pakistan generally. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 9:05 am

Commercialisation, urban planning and the environment- by Ahmad Rafay Alam

 Ahmad Rafay Alam  Comments Off
Sep 012008
 

The acting director-general of the Punjab Environmental Protection Agency last week pointed to the commercialisation of Lahore’s roads as a major factor responsible for the city’s worsening traffic congestion and terrible air pollution. This is an important observation. The dots this thinking connects allow for public debate on an issue that is often obfuscated by other competing urban and municipal concerns.
Continue reading »

 Posted by at 8:53 am

Wake up to the new urban reality

 Ahmad Rafay Alam  Comments Off
Aug 252008
 

Ahmad Rafay AlamAround the world, cities are adapting to the difficulties they face. In the US, the credit crunch and high oil prices are challenging settled notions of urbanism, what a city should be and how it should cater to its residents. In Europe, similar concerns and a growing awareness of the environment are also changing how cities are designed and put together. These responses are important. Unlike any other time in the history of human civilisation, today’s world is an urban world. More than half the people on earth live in cities. How they are designed is crucial to how they impact the majority of the population of the planet. We are no exception, and should stop pretending we are. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 5:53 pm

Inequities of commercialisation – II-Ahmad Rafay Alam

 Ahmad Rafay Alam, Real estate  1 Response »
Aug 182008
 

Last year, I had written about the inequities of Lahore’s commercialisation policy (“The Inequities of Commercialisation,” The News 14 August 2007). This year, with Special and Review Committees formed to determine the future contours of the city’s commercialisation policy, there is opportunity to examine the subject in new light. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 6:52 am

Green M M Alam Road-Ahmad Rafay Alam

 Ahmad Rafay Alam, Environment  Comments Off
Aug 112008
 

Property prices on Lahore’s M M Alam Road are among the highest in Pakistan. Last year, the market price for land there was Rs80 million per kanal. With these prices, the only type of activity feasible on property there is some form of high-end or high-rise commercial. And that’s what you see. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 6:59 am

Pakistan local government vs development authority

 Ahmad Rafay Alam  Comments Off
Jul 282008
 

Ahmad Rafay Alam

After the recent election it was generally accepted that the Grand Musharruffian Experiment of welding a new local government administration onto our polity would not be rolled back. Sane counsel argued to do so would be as much a shock to the system as was the introduction of this clunky appendage. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 8:12 am

Literary review of the environment chapter-Ahmad Rafay Alam

 Ahmad Rafay Alam  Comments Off
Jun 302008
 

The Government of Pakistan released its Economic Survey for 2007-2008 earlier this month. As an example of writing, it is tedious in the extreme, with the reader constantly summoned to interpret innocuous phrases or made to jump over statistics, the literary equivalent of hurdles. If one stumbles, the survey can have its way. It can even convince you that all is well. But modest scrutiny reveals far more of the plot than its author was allowed to reveal. Continue reading »

 Posted by at 8:19 am
Page 3 of 3123