Of slums and low-cost housing

If govt wants to deal with illegal settlement, associated concerns, it will have to do lot more than run bulldozers.

Those holding the view that simply razing slums and pushing out their residents will improve things for urban centres might as well also subscribe to the ‘to-eliminate-poverty-kill-the-poor’ school of thought. Take the renewed effort against Islamabad’s Afghan Basti, for example. The area is in the crosshairs for a number of reasons. Afghan Basti is not the first and only, and unfortunately, will not be the last, slum area to be targeted and its residents left for dead. At present, most problems faced by urban centres are conveniently and casually associated with the presence of myriad slum areas in Pakistan’s large cities. There are plenty of renowned urban planners who have already debunked this myth for what it is: an excuse for failed planning policies. One cannot blame the effect for the cause. Crime is present because of weak law-enforcement, dilapidated infrastructure because of flawed allocation priorities and lack of basic amenities due to a failure to upgrade and maintain distribution systems.

If the government wants to deal with illegal settlement and its associated concerns, it will have to do a lot more than run its bulldozers through what millions of Pakistanis currently call home. After all, it is responsible for the futures of these Pakistanis, too. One option is low-cost housing. The government recently launched a scheme called ‘Apna Ghar’ to build some 500,000 houses over five years. While this is a drop in the ocean, it could be a good start. However, though this solution may sound simple, it has failed in the past. In his second government in 1997, the prime minister had launched a similar scheme called ‘Mera Ghar’ envisioning the building of the same number of houses. This project never materialised and such was the debacle that contractors taken on board approached the courts to recover invested money once General Musharraf took over. One hopes that this new scheme is implemented and indeed expanded unlike its predecessors. Or there will be more slums and more bulldozers and more homeless Pakistanis.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2014.

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