LAHORE: Pakistan’s urban population grew immensely by 76 per cent to 75.68 million in 2017 from 43m in 1998, according to the final results of the Population Census 2017.

In other words, around 36.44pc of the country’s total population of 207.68m lived in cities in 2017 compared to 32.5pc out of 132.35m in 1998. According to the data, Balochistan is the most rapidly urbanising province followed by Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Rapid urbanisation is placing more pressure on limited public services (education, health, clean drinking water, sewerage and so on) which are available for city dwellers as socio-economic infrastructure in major cities crumbles owing to lack of sufficient investments.

Balochistan is most rapidly urbanising province followed by Sindh, Punjab and KP

Dwindling household size, which has reduced to 5.55 persons in Sindh and 6.38 persons in Punjab against the national average of 6.39 persons, is also creating housing shortages as well as mobility issues in the cities. It goes without saying that agricultural land around cities is being grabbed by the wealthy to develop expensive sprawling housing societies for the affluent with all amenities.

In fact, some urban planners say Pakistani cities present a striking contrast as disparities in the quality of life and circumstances of people living in different areas increase with the passage of time. The growing gap in the services available to residents of the poorer, disorganised neighbourhoods and the affluent communities is spawning crime and creating law and order issues.

Some would say urbanisation is a major challenge facing policymakers and planners. However, an Islamabad-based public policy adviser and researcher, Naveed Iftikhar, differs with them. “Urban management and not urbanisation is a challenge; urbanisation is an opportunity. Urbanisation is unstoppable. If Pakistan is to progress, we will have to encourage urbanisation.”

“However, in order to exploit the full potential of cities for economic growth, we would have to address the attendant problems and reshape our cities on an urgent basis,” he goes on to add.

According to him, the urban population is growing at a much faster rate than the national population growth rate because of rapid migration of villagers to the cities in search of employment opportunities and better life prospects as mechanisation of agriculture reduces jobs in the rural areas. Besides, the villagers working in other countries are also bringing their families to the cities where they can access better health and education facilities and escape the cultural stress of rural life.

He says urbanisation is posing many challenges related to city governance, jobs, housing as well as access to public transport, health, education and other public services.

“In the absence of effective and autonomous local governments and institutions, urban management is being handled by bureaucracy that doesn’t fully grasp the challenges posed by a rapid increase in urban population nor is equipped with the tools and solutions to deal with them,” he noted.

According to Mr Iftikhar, the fragmentation of public services and responsibilities is making it more difficult to make and execute plans. “In short, the paraphernalia for effective urban management planning, particularly for larger cities, is totally missing in the country. We need to institute a powerful local governance structure, and involve people and professionals for better planning and management of our cities,” he opined.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2021