The Exploding Urban Giant & The Need For More Megacities By Zahra Mughis

Pakistan’s second largest and Punjab’s most developed metropolitan city is the provincial capital, the mythical city of Lahore which was once a town which then transformed into the walled city; as of today Lahore is an exploding urban giant. There is a need for developing more megacities in Pakistan in general and Punjab in particular given its share in the national demographic pie. With the largest population among all the units of the federations Punjab is the largest source of human capital in the country and in turn, requires the most extensive infrastructure and facilities framework as well. A visit to any government hospital across the province or a day at any public school, a walk across the namely big cities and a conversation with any commoner would make you realize that there is only one Urban Giant in the province and a day in Lahore lets you further understand that this Giant is bound to explode sooner than expected.

Lahore city is much less liveable than it was three to four decades ago, it is less green, less clean, less safe, more cemented, more polluted and more congested. The grounds for discarding this perception about the now “city of concrete” are not very concrete. In accordance with the Global Liveability Index, by the Economist intelligence Unit, for the year 2015 Lahore is the 199th most liveable city on the planet, lagging behind the Indian political capital and the mythical twin city of Delhi, the industrial and tech capitals of Mumbai and Bengaluru. Make it a note that the provincial capital of Punjab is ranked parallel to Angola’s Luanda and falls below Azerbaijan’s Buko and even Tanzania’s Dar Es Salaam. This index is based on indicators of healthcare, education, stability, infrastructure and environment. Was Lahore really the city to have this status on the GLI, a century ago? The answer to this question, back then, was certainly in negative. Lahore was a principal court, if not the first political capital, of the mediaeval empires in this area. It was a nucleus that rendered support to these kingdoms with its ritualistic significance as a hub of culture, religion, politics and education. Lahore was made into headquarters for the British Raj for governance of North India after its occupation in 1849 which was granted the status of the provincial capital post-independence in 1947. The British Colonial Headquarter was expanded, equipped with latest facilities of the time, made home to education at all levels, given a high status on administrative zones list without harming much of its beauty vested in open spaces, greenery, vegetation and plantation – a treasure and heritage left by the Mughal and Sikh Empires. Lahore was a model city as a metropolitan living its culture-rich essence. What is Lahore today, almost nothing of what it was when the British left! Lahore today is Pakistan’s second urban giant, next to Karachi – a city destroyed environmentally and without any model facilities.

Urbanization has left Lahore nothing of what it was a century ago. Migration began in the British colonial regime when they transferred officials, bearcats and other human capital to their Administrative Capital of British North India. However, neither that influx of human capital nor the migration of Muslims at the time of partition did any tangible damage to the city. Rural to Urban migrations since independence has played a significant role in the deterioration of the city. Lahore was no exception to other colonial capitals around the world. It was a centre of development and an outlet set as nucleus of the vast political, economic and communication infrastructure and networks laid out by the Crowned Colonisers of the sub-continent. Thus, it became the provincial capital later. Availability of facilities, resources and opportunities Lahore became a subject to second city bias in Pakistan and drew rural migrants from all over Punjab and further regions of the country. In the year 1901 Lahore’s recorded population was merely two hundred thousand while the latest demographic data available on the web quotes city’s population to be approximately ten million. The metropolitan Lahore swelled with time as successive governments in power prioritised the city with bias, grounded in political or convenience dynamics. Lahore’s urbanization rate is the fastest among the cities of the SAARC countries. Urban population in the city is growing at a staggering rate of 80% which is a hypothesized high urbanization rate among the first world mega cities. Urbanization is taken as a positive driver for economic growth in any economy but as long as it is managed and regulated. With the ever growing urban population in the city, Lahore ranks low on all indicators of the Global Liveability. Over time, without planned infrastructural development, the city is no more able to meet the educational, healthcare, employment and security needs of its residents. The once metropolitan is now a City Of Concrete without adequate and quality fundamental facilities. The giant is erupting and shall explode sooner than later.

It is imperative that the government develops infrastructure and provides facilities in other cities of the province and the country itself. Instead of creating exploding urban giants like Karachi and Lahore and congestion-stricken cities with immensely high population densities like Islamabad it should focus on developing midsized cities. Instead of stimulating economic activity the slums and shanty towns are hindering the growth. Mismanaged urbanization, poverty, illiteracy, poor human capital, instability and environment breed on each other and the cycle continues as it has been doing so, for decades now. Initiatives for infrastructural development, education and healthcare facilities can perhaps save the future generation from the despair in the predictions for now but the negligence to environmental degradation is alarming.

Lahore has suffered environmental degradation at a startling level with built-up area increasing at an average 21.04% annually between 1991 and 2009 while the urban vegetation decreasing by 23.26% in the same period. 2100 hundred trees have been cut down for the sake of mega projects of roads and transits in the past one year and a total of 1715 tress is to be felled for the Express Elevated Project expected to be started in Lahore during the current calendar year. Instead of taking measures for protection of environment sacrificed to unnecessary and mismanaged urbanization the government is felling more trees. Lahore is already experiencing climatic changes which are predicted to worsen in the coming years if industrial and urban pollution and cutting of trees continues at the present rate. Neither is there a waste management system for the industrial park nor there are appropriate living conditions for the ever increasing slum dwellers, adding to continued tree cutting in the city. It might not make it to the top 200 countries on the GLI in the coming years.

Addressing the problems of urbanization in the face of no schooling for 13 million children in the province of Punjab, a high infant mortality rate and many other challenges of health, education, environment and security the government must take concrete steps to keep the urban giants from exploding, liveability standards from falling and the economy from sinking. Pakistan needs more metropolitans if nothing else. The politically driven expenditures on roads and flyovers in the provincial capital make less of human capital and add more to social and environment costs than your pocket calculator can process. The criminal negligence of successive governments towards South Punjab is another important subject of discussion, on the general basis the whole province is in need to dispersed developmental expenditures. Pakistan needs more megacities to save its future generation the economic, social and environmental risks which are imminent at present.

by webmaster@insaf.pk (tkiadmin)