Advancing urban blight

Pakistan is a rapidly urbanising society. The cities are getting bigger by the day and demands for urban services, everything from power utilities to transportation to infrastructure like roads and bridges, are only going to increase. Pakistan is also an ancient culture, and has historic buildings and unique architecture everywhere across the land — and it is poorly cared for and under threat. Our very heritage is disappearing before our eyes as our political masters seek to make their dreams concrete. The annual urbanisation growth rate is 3.5 per cent and Pakistan is a leader in urbanisation in the South Asia region. It is undeniable that urbanisation and industrialisation are the keys to our economic future, but that which is our cultural heritage must not be sacrificed along the way.

Such was the underlying theme at the third Pakistan Urban Forum held at the Alhamra in Lahore. The Planning, Development and Reforms Minister Ahsan Iqbal in his address to the meeting admitted that Pakistan had failed to “protect and promote the character of our cities while planning new projects” — a considerable admission from a minister in a government that places Metro lines and other mega-projects above the likes of historic structures they are encroaching upon.

The Forum was a five-day event spread over 40 sessions and there seemed little dissent in terms of what was needed to protect the cultural heritage in urban areas, but there was no concrete suggestion as to how to halt the political juggernaut that rolls ever onwards. The moot concluded with fine words — a pledge to “…make our cities the engines of growth and transform these into the ones we dream of”. All the buzzwords were repeated over and over — ‘synergy’, ‘stakeholder’, ‘institutional capacity building’ and ‘human resources’; but there is a sense that those attending were preaching to the already converted, and that the stable door had been closed long after the concrete horse bolted up the road. By all means, protect our urban heritage, indeed we demand such protection and conservation, but do so with tooth and muscle because academic papers serve few beyond their authors. Only then can we hope for governments to start taking the discussions at such forums seriously.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2015.

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