slamabad has not developed and grown in accordance with its master plan. This is a cause of concern for unlike other cities, all of the federal capital was meant to be built according to a plan. Under that plan, the H sectors were meant for educational and allied institutions.

On the face of it, everything is neat and clean. From Allama Iqbal Open University to the swanky Higher Education Commission (HEC) compounds to the picturesque National University of Science and Technology (NUST), everything is placed properly on the online map.

But on the ground, there is chaos. Some of these institutions have turned into castles. To a student of city planning, symmetry is key to building functional cities. To acquire such symmetry, all buildings are required to have green spaces and not construct on more than 60, in some cases 70, percent of the allocated area.

In Islamabad, this rule is largely complied with. However, there is some lack of clarity in certain areas. If you look at the AIOU, and the post graduate college adjacent to it, the difference in covered and green areas is striking.

Once you go past the AIOU, the first turn to the Aga Shahi Avenue is a traffic nightmare. A number of vehicles are seen stationed on roadsides, some even on the road.

This is because of the HEC offices. The office building is frequented by faculty members, university officials and students from across the country. A majority of these visitors come for attestation of their degrees issued by various universities that have been accredited by the HEC.

The HEC building has parking space inside its gates. Frequently the parking lot is vacant while the road outside is clogged due to parking of vehicles by HEC visitors.

A few kilometres down the road, the Khayaban-i-Jauhar turns to a dead end. It houses at least five educational institutions, including three universities, a big college and a local and an international school.

The road at least 20,000 people traverse regularly has not been made a dual-carriage way. It becomes impassable whenever buses from the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) start leaving or arriving.

The NUML was not meant originally to be a university. However, in 2000 it was made a university, with little regard to whether or not there was sufficient space to accommodate the students it would now attract.

As the saying goes, when you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Now the university does not have enough parking space. To deal with this problem, a large parking lot has been carved out of the green belt across the road.

Despite the fact that the matter has been highlighted a number of times, the city administration has taken little action. Some of the green belts have also been eaten up by the Metro Bus Service.

Guards at NUML place dividers on the road in a bid to keep traffic running but a myriad of ride sharers, cabbies and bike riders refuse to cooperate with them.

Next to the main gate of the university that opens onto Srinagar Highway, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has set up an asphalt plant and a depot of some kind. When land was allocated to the IIUI in the 1990s, the CDA had promised to remove this plant. More than three decades later the plant has not been removed.

Next to the NUML stands Iqra University which faces some of the same problems. Once you go beyond Iqra University, everything is orderly. The improvement is attributable to an international school, where children of diplomats and mostly rich people study.

The sprawling building is heavily guarded. There was a time when the road was blocked to ensure its security. It was not before a court intervened that the citizens’ right to use the road was restored. Somehow the barriers returned. The city administration is currently removing these following a public outcry.

People using this road continue to face resistance. The chief guard tells The News on Sunday that people are generally allowed to pass through. He says there are some slight restrictions only around the start and end of school time.

The International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) too has a gate on this portion of the road. It is in a bad state of repair. The road is even till the office of the Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) beyond which it seems that there is no road there. Unregistered slums have also not been removed from the area.

On the main gate of the university that opens onto Srinagar Highway, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has set up an asphalt plant and a depot of some kind.

When land was allocated to the IIUI in the 1990s, the CDA had promised to remove this plant. Over three decades later the plant has not been removed. The issue has been taken up at various levels and despite assurances, the civic body has not vacated the land. As a result, the pollution continues.

The city managers have left the H-9 Sector mostly unattended. As a result, there is no discernable order around the FAST University, the Al Huda Centre and several other academic institutions. Everyone has put up barriers on various parts of the roads or encroached on green areas.

Unfortunately, universities have also been set up on undesignated area dotting almost all city roads. The government presumably grants permission to open a degree awarding institution following a set procedure.

Universities have been set up in Islamabad on roads as narrow as the Japan Road leading to Kahuta. These include My University and Ibadat University. It is not too hard to imagine the situation on this single lane road when university buses ply on it. Those who grant permission for setting up of universities at such places perhaps do not consider public safety.

Unlike these ill-planned universities, the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) has a large area and enough parking lots. However, it has not been able to construct a boundary wall because encroachers on its land have not been evicted. The matter has been simmering for decades.

While the city managers have not resolved this problem causing security and other issues, they are now building the Bhara Kahu bridge on more than 500 kanals of university land. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif recently inaugurated the project. Faculty members and students fear that the CDA will never give alternative land to the university.

The NUST, the QAU, the IIUI and the AIOU are among the top 10 universities of Pakistan. These and other universities cater to more than 100,000 students. Over 20 private universities and degree awarding institutions also operate in the city.

City managers and law enforcement have a generally hostile posture towards all these institutions of higher education.

The writer teaches development support communication at the International Islamic University Islamabad. He tweets @HassanShehzadZ and can be reached at Hassan.shehzad@iiui.edu.pk