An Assessment of Pakistan’s Urban Policies, 1947-1997 By Muhammad A.Qadeer

Description Pakistan, like most Third World (TW) countries, is besieged by urban problems, namely acute shortages of housing, huge shortfalls in the provision of water supply, sewers, drainage, waste disposal, traffic management, electricity, transport, pollution control, congested and sprawled-out cities, ill-managed land market and inefficient land use systems, and wide social disparities in the quality of life of the poor and the rich, etc. So widespread and intense are these problems that the term ‘urban crisis’ is applied to the overall phenomenon. Pakistan has all the components of an urban crisis. This fact needs little elaboration or reaffirmation. This paper begins by assuming that Pakistan’s urban problems are aplenty and they have multiplied exponentially over time. The paper will address the question as to what has been done by way of public policies and programmes to respond to the urban problems and how effective, as well as relevant, have been these measures. This is the overall purpose of the paper. Download Now