Islamabad’s crippling economy

When the Capital Development Authority (CDA) seals a home-based business, the scene left behind resembles a prison. It is characterised by dark rooms, grilled windows with no view, scanty belongings, and unbearable heat.

Shaista is a widow who struggled to raise her only son, since her education was not sufficient to sustain a bread winner’s role. Although trapped by this limitation, she managed to establish a respectable business of a one-room beauty parlour in her house in Islamabad. A grandmother now, Shaista has also been troubled with looking after her jobless son’s family. It has been a year and a half since the CDA sealed her tiny salon, Shaista’s financial circumstances have become more deplorable.

In 2015, the CDA was directed through a landmark judgment by the courts to close down commercial activities and businesses in residential spaces within Islamabad. The judgment aimed at upholding the sanctity of rules and regulations as non-conformists allegedly spread corruption and paved the way for the arbitrary use of authority.

Microbusiness owners like Shaista have been deprived on the grounds of fundamental rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) beautifully states, “The recognition of inherent dignity and of equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” This is further deconstructed and elaborated upon in Chapter 1 of the Constitution of Pakistan.

We tend to use umbrella terms like “human rights” and measure them against written constitutions. There is a proportionate value attached to two fundamental concepts of human rights: one is the legal and the other is moral. The legal dimensions are the standards of security, justice and freedom, which are well taken care of in the form of codified rules and regulations. The moral dimensions are tricky, as these provide the basis for respectable and agreeable coexistence of people. Unfortunately, we have lost its indelible presence in our policies, rules and implementation practices.



Inadequate understanding of moral principles by city planners will result in an urban development policy that undermines the rights of marginalised communities. Further, it will be culturally insensitive and invalidating for a micro- or home- based economy. The absence of a moral dimension will result in a growth of monopoly-driven businesses, land mafia, school owners’ mafia, corruption and many other faceless social and economic monsters.

It is critical to treat human happiness as the centre of all social, economic and sustainable development. Urban planning requires a framework that focuses on its main assets — the people. Identifying the needs and limitations of marginalised people in communities within a city, like Shaista, is called “evidence-based” policymaking. A policy based on such methodology ensures a realisation of both legal and moral rights of its inhabitants and policymakers may subsequently better defend their actions before courts.

Stories like those of Shaista invoke sentiments for sympathy, since she is emblematic of victims of social injustices and fragile sustenance resources. Her success is a manifestation of the demand-based resilience of micro-enterprises in any community. The absence of an adequate urbanisation strategy does not stop informal businesses from emerging and swelling.

Pakistan nurtures male domination in the bread-winning sphere. We have failed to recognise that women often work from home not by choice, but due to their shackled role as caregivers. Besides the cultural taboos on women as shopkeepers, commercial areas do not provide a safe and secure environment for women. I happened to visit two beauty parlours which are being run by women in the commercial areas of Islamabad. Both of them were comfortably running the business, due to the fact that their fathers owned the very plazas. Safety under the fathers’ umbrella will raise no criminal incidents in the dark corridors of the building.

A city serves its people. Raiding commercial units is not the end or even the means to smarter town planning. We have seen raids without a backup plan for the entrepreneurs that brought an abnormal shift in the rents of commercial spaces. Having no regulation or control over the rent rate, hundreds of micro businesses had to shut down. Micro businesses are the lifeline of any developing economy, skill development hub and job providers. With hundreds of micro businesses closed and thousands of jobs gone, the courts and the CDA remain absolved of the loss of livelihoods, respect and safety of innumerable women entrepreneurs.

As time passes, we see that big guns return to thrive in residential spaces. Article 25 of the Constitution of Pakistan provides assurance of equality of all citizens, but a different yardstick prevails for businesses in Islamabad. Private schools continue to enjoy their perks in residential buildings, on the grounds of serving the need for education and not having alternative space allocated by urban planners, however, this is also a result of the CDA’s town planners’ lack of vision and turning a blind eye to a business sector that mushroomed over a span of 15 years. CDA continues to ignore rampant violators in the form of guest houses and Chinese restaurants running in residential houses.

Thus, the CDA needs to go back to its drawing board with communities and residents to identify and adopt a rights-based approach, for conscious urban planning of a city that truly serves its inhabitants and evolves into a hub of economy. A World Bank report titled, “Human Rights and Economics: Tensions and Positive Relationships” outlines practical level suggestions on distribution of growth and wealth within a society by integrating human rights in policymaking at all levels. Town planners are no exception.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2017.

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