City plans

The manner in which events in the city tie together is sometimes not easy to understand. Indeed, we ignore these realities all together. At a recent seminar in Karachi noted urban planner and social activist Arif Hassan said that the widening gap between the rich and the poor, aggravated by the manner in which urban planning in Karachi was taking place had contributed to many social problems including major social upheavals which have already overtaken us over and over again. We can see the divide in Karachi and in all our major cities. The housing areas where the poor live are vastly different to those occupied by the rich. The factors identified as being responsible for this include the allocation of land to the rich at low rates and without proper procedure and also the violation of laws that protect heritage.
These are facts we simply cannot ignore any longer. We have seen rising crime and a collapse of order, most notably in Karachi but also in other urban centres. The situation needs to be addressed. We need to treat our citizens in a more equitable fashion and one means of doing so is by addressing their basic housing and infrastructure needs. The failure to compensate the poor when their land is taken over to put up housing projects for the wealthy is one example of the inequality we see everywhere. The social gap being created is dangerous. In one way or the other, it has to be resolved and this falls into place with the broader effort to save the heritage of Karachi and all that lies within a city populated by a hugely diverse set of people.