Dialogue

LAHORE : The Urban Unit’s initiated Saturday City Dialogue at the Quaid-e-Azam Library, Lahore, its fifth session on city economics with focus on cities as dumping grounds for surplus rural labour. The dialogue was conducted by Dr Kaiser Bengali, a renowned economist and adviser to Sindh chief minister. Dr Bengali is considered an authority on pro-poor analysis in the public and policy circles. He also heads the Benazir Bhutto Support Programme of the government of Pakistan.

In his presentation, Dr Kaiser Bengali said Pakistani cities were not planned. Their growth is haphazard and they don’t offer the basic necessities to the citizens as compared to the cities in the developed or developing countries, he added. He said that it was time Pakistan drafted its urbanisation policy that could make cities effective, efficient, competitive and sustainable.

The participants in the interactive session stressed on the need to have a public agenda for the cities to make them more inclusive and resident-friendly.