September 22, 2002

The first issue of City, a quarterly on urban society, was published in July. It, in the main, incorporates articles, studies and images that spotlight changes wrought by the process of urbanization. This is a much needed publication for Karachi since there is no periodical celebrating its wonders and protesting its injustices, to use the editor’s words. The periodical also promises to reflect on the social changes brought about by urbanization. City should help to fill the vacuum in this field. As the editor observes in her note, it will “provide a forum for sharing of observations. concerns and analyses related to life in cities.

It is precisely this what the first issue proceeds to do. Architect and planner, Arif Hasan, in his lead article writes that three manifestations of socio-economic changes that Pakistan has undergone are of fundamental import. One is the emergence of an upwardly mobile migrant culture. The second is the demise of the feudal order as an effective arm of the establishment, and the third is rapid urbanization.

As a result of refugee migration from India, the demography of Punjab and urban Sindh was completely changed. Old clan organizations, the relationship between caste and professions, compositions of neighbourhoods around castes and inter-caste relations, all collapsed within a space of a few months. The new migrant culture had no roots and little respect for traditional values.

The result of the second fundamental change is that the feudal lords have been replaced by the new lords who supply water, fertilizer, transport, tractor, informal light engineering and money. An upshot of this change is that entire populations are now in debt to urban-based entrepreneurs, most of whom are of rural origin.

The third major manifestation of change in Pakistan is urbanization. Many demographers, notes Hasan, have argued convincingly that the country’s urban population is nearer to fifty per cent of its total population, even though officially it is shown on the lower side.

The writer’s heart bleeds not so much for the speed with which the urban landscape is changing as it does for its not being reflected realistically in the sheaf of planning papers. While the demographic, social, cultural and economic realities have changed enormously, they have not been institutionalized in any form. The result, according to Arif Hasan, is the creation of parallel systems of governance in defiance of state laws, political and cultural alienation of increasingly large sections of population, social anarchy and the resulting administrative and judicial helplessness.

Architect Hina Kabir captures the sights and sounds of Karachi’s south — the nine square miles of historic core — and traces its history. To most Karachiites, she notes, the old city is a congested part of the metropolis: crammed with people and flooded with smoke-emitting, honking, vehicles, jostling carts and shouting vendors. Overlooking the clamour and the clatter is the rich fabric of the colonial architecture that now stands wearily. Crumbled arches, chipped columns, blackened stonewalls, collapsing timber window frames and rusted wrought iron balconies, bespeak of the eminence the structures once had.

She blasts the present policy for protection of Karachi’s vast cultural heritage, saying it does not take into account the holistic view of the built environment nor embraces the concept of the neighbourhood as a living entity, a sum total of its physical-social structure.

If this policy of considering only the grand, isolated buildings as cultural heritage continues, while the totality of the historic fabric within its unique setting is neglected, Karachi will be stripped of its rich holistic heritage, shorn of its valuable cultural traditions, warns Hina Kabir.

Designer, photographer, and teacher, Sohail Zuberi, catches glimpses of throbbing, pulsating life at Jodia Bazaar with the clicking of his camera from artistically correct angles.

In his write-up, titled “Relocating Delhi: a postcolonial city in the 1990s”, Aditya Nigam, says that early efforts at town planning were all characterized by a fear of epidemics. The large-scale demolition of slums undertaken during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency days were driven by this fear. It was the 1990s that saw the rapid restructuring of the city space. In this period, the concerns of health acquired a particularly elitist character, alongside a cynical disregard for the lives of the poor.

Artist and art teacher, Durriya Kazi, dilates on the tradition of truck decoration in our part of the world. She notes that poetry is an important part of truck art with verses ranging from the humorous and irreverent to the deeply philosophical. There is room for humour, for political observation, but the enduring theme is love and sweet romance with hearts crossed by arrows, bleeding with unrequited love and veiled beauties staring enigmatically.

Zeenat Hisam, the editor of the quarterly, takes the readers to Tehran’s “Park-e-Shehr”, a park situated right at the heart of the city. She is told by its in-charge that Tehran has 5,000 square metre area of green space. There are, in all, 140 parks, big and small, serving as essential ‘lung spaces’ for Iran’s capital city.

City, a quarterly on urban society (No.1)
Edited by Zeenat Hisam
City Press, 316 Madina City Mall, Saddar, Karachi-74400
Tel: 021-5650623
Email: cp@citypress.cc
Website: www.citypress.cc
100pp. Rs150 (Foreign subscription for 4 issues: US$65

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