Our side of the country, the one that’s experiencing change, has a lot to boast of.

The streets of Peshawar are sparkling clean and there is not a single plastic paper to be found anywhere.

The police are on their duty in their best uniforms, all clean and tidy and strictly patrolling the areas. Suddenly there is not a single car out of its lane and honking is considerably less than it used to be.

In fact car companies are patenting new designs for Peshawar with no seat belts and indicators, that of course, on account of how less we need it now.

The city is magnificent in the morning and a beautiful at night. Peshawar is finally at ‘peace’.

Wait! That was a dream! I have been tricked again. One shouldn’t go that far nowadays. In our desperation what we seem to chuckle at are artificial flowers and colourful dustbins installed around the city. Though, ironically none serves its purpose. If the condition of the city of flowers is as gloomy as it has been for a long time, what about the other areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa? Is there any change taking place there too? One city I’m sure of is Abbottabad.

With a staggering population that continues to go uphill, the hill station has surpassed all cities in its own devastation. In a decade, the place has experienced the most change.

Shops have sprung around every corner and empty plots have been serving as dumping grounds for the sake of all our messy and unhygienic habits.

On the narrow bumpy roads are huge trucks and trailers looming large over pedestrians as their wheels churn up and down.

There is no proper system prevailing to keep all of this chaos on the road in check. The police seem to provide little effort benefit to the motorists and in most cases are the ones responsible for traffic jams when they are busy in interrogating a motorist.

Abbottabad used to be a one-horse town. A place for picnics and a few days stay where people could admire the scenic landscape for a change. The population was in its thousands and the roads were far less occupied than they used to be, but ever since the start of industrialisation in these areas everything took a turn.

Ironically businesses seemed to faring well only in the mid summer season. But the city has become a magnet, attracting people of all professions for a long time now and the greatest benefactors are medical pharmacies and doctors.

Their businesses are working efficiently round the clock even if everything else comes to a halt after heavy showers of rain. The tall century-old trees that were so common to this place are long gone. Contrary to the lush green lawns that used to carpet the hills, the place has now become a concrete jungle. What are even more ridiculous are the high rise buildings on the sloping grounds.

It is evident that things will not be the way they used to be. But what escapes my mind all the time is where are the authorities and what are they doing in all of this mess? What change are they bringing? What initiatives did our government take here? If a small city like Abbottabad can be such a chaotic and polluted mess what are we hoping for cities like Peshawar?

Published in Dawn September 5th, 2016