IT looks like governments which come power have no mechanism of dealing with recommendations or advice from the people. Sadly, the PTI government is no different.

Being a professional development expert, trained in all disciplines of town planning, engineering and architecture, as well as being one of the senior most working professionals at my age (90), I think I am qualified to share some of my thoughts on the subject.

Continued uncertainties about democracy, bad administration and professional dishonesty in town planning have brought us to the current state of housing in our cities and villages. As a result of neglecting established town planning practices, we find ourselves in a complete mess. Using Karachi as an example, here is what we see: overcrowded roads and unmanageable traffic. The city authorities have taken halfhearted measures but owing to lack a of town planning, the city as a whole is helpless.

If you look at water, there is continuous flooding in the city owing to defective development plans with no arrangement for drainage. Due to the absence of town and country planning laws, policies for the conversion of land use are discretionary leading to all types of problems and bad administration.

No real efforts have been made to prepare master plans for all cities, towns and villages. In fact, lopsided, uncontrolled and unregulated development spread over 70 years is the major cause for the crimes and corruption. Lack of planning at the union, taluka, provincial and national level has resulted in a land terrain that is conducive to flooding in the monsoon season, which would go on increasing unless immediate steps are taken at the national level.

Aftab Mohammad Khan

Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2018