Harking Back: Lahore Master Plan 2050: clever bureaucrats rule

This piece is about the macro picture since 1947 and what we have learnt so far. Given 73 years of such ‘urban’ planning and the resultant mess, the next 30 years of ‘development’ surely needs to be examined in detail. The 1941 Census had put the population of Lahore at 671,659. By 1947 the guestimate is that the population was less than the 800,000 mark.

Officially in the Lahore ‘metro’ area the population is 12,642,000 now. If you include the surrounding areas, experts believe, it is near the 14,500,000 mark. So what does an increase in 1947 from 800,000 to 12,642,000 in 2020 mean on an annual average basis? It is a whopping unbelievable 20.2pc annually. This is among the world’s fastest urban population growth figure.

Now let us see what happened then. In 1947, Lahore city had a Muslim population of 63.4pc. This means that suddenly 280,000 people fled the bloodshed during the Partition. In their place, a massive 1,000,000 plus population rushed in. The deputy commissioner of Lahore, then recently appointed, was a gentleman by the name of Zafarul Ahsan. He spent every hour awake trying to find a few million refugees a place to stay. In this madness, a lot of traders from places such as Amritsar getting property papers made for a ‘rupee a page’. The result was some of the city’s old trading markets.

The law as laid down by the British was that the city could not have over 15pc of properties as ‘commercial’. Leaving aside some green open spaces, the remaining had to be residential. What happened is before us. As the entire Shahalam Market area had been burnt down, a new one was built by Zafarul Ahsan. Then he quickly planned two huge residential areas, Samanabad and Gulberg. The law was followed and the legal 15pc area was allocated for commercial areas.

Mr Ahsan also took on the task to setting up the Thal Development Authority, providing generous land portions to the Muslim farmers from East Punjab. Amazingly, a lot of rich Sikh farmers converted to Islam and maintained their holdings. Water canals were built and an impressive Green Revolution came about, with USAID playing a significant role. Once Zafarul Ahsan was moved out of Lahore, some say under traders’ pressure, a lot of Punjab bureaucrats started getting massive houses allotted to their names in Lahore’s Gulberg, especially those who belonged to areas east and west of Lahore. They also managed to get huge agricultural lands left by Sikh farmers. This is known as the ‘Claim Generation’, one that set in tone the unending and blatant corruption that has become our wont.

The Ayub era saw an industrial development surge, with most being established in areas originally marked as ‘residential’. It became so easy for bureaucrats to use their powers to declare an area as ‘taken over’. In British days, this was a defence prerogative only. These days, a thousand ‘other’ reasons have become the ‘rule’, mind you, not the law. But courts seldom are in a position to challenge such political planning, thanks to their team of legal experts and the hollow consideration that it is in ‘the public good’.

Let us examine one glaring example. The Gulberg created by Zafarul Ahsan had planned for a number of excellent markets. Together, they constituted the 15pc mark. Residents were promised that they could pass their lives in peace. Roads had pavements for pedestrians and every facility for civilised living was in place. Then came the Sharif era. As the trading classes expanded their businesses, they started operating from residential houses. Then special leave was granted for them to build commercial buildings. Very soon, the totally residential Main Gulberg Boulevard had business buildings coming up. Then in one massive stroke, the entire of Gulberg was declared commercial by the younger brother, Shehbaz Sharif. Zafarul Ahsan would have turned in his grave.

Take the Model Town and Muslim Town areas. This is what happened to them. One top legal expert of Lahore tells me that for an ‘appropriate’ fee, the LDA can grant commercial status to any place in Lahore.

Take another example. On the main Ferozepur Road, a number of buildings, including a few hospitals, have been knocked down because the new in-coming bureaucrats have not paid the appropriate fee. The highest courts followed the law and got them knocked down. The problem is that these ‘development’ bureaucrats have to initiate the process to keeping these ‘law-breakers’ above or below the law. The honest bureaucrats, and they are aplenty and powerless, retire paupers.

The examples of the ‘green areas’ are more astounding. The ‘pavement areas’ and their mysterious disappearance is even more criminal. Take Gulberg’s Main Boulevard. The once excellent walk is now a fast driving throughway without pavements. The pedestrians have been sent to ‘hell’ by the ‘pious’ rich. The examples are countless but we must remain to the basics. What should be the parameters within which ‘Lahore 2050’ should be planned?

First, the original law of allowing 15pc area for commercial purposes must be followed. Those who have flouted the law in the past must be either provided with new places or asked to vacate. You cannot have a Lahore where over 60pc of all buildings become non-residential. At least, 10pc of the area must have parks and trees that is if we want a healthy population to exist. For every resident, the science says, there should be seven trees of local origin, not Australian origin eucalyptus trees that suck up underground water. Lahore is a already water scarce city.

Then the new ‘Lahore 2050 Plan’ should have roads with proper pavements to walk on. With the number of cars exploding and Lahore having the world’s largest motorcycle population – two per household of seven – there is a need for at least 2.5pc of commercial area allocated to proper parking plazas. In itself this is big business.

Lastly, a genuine effort should be made to discourage people from migrating to Lahore. This reminds me of the Hadith of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) who has suggested that once a city grows beyond control, people should migrate to smaller cities, at least one day’s horse-ride away. It makes immense sense. Take London as an example where the authorities make sure the population does not exceed eight million. That is their outer limit. The present population of London is 7.7m, about half of Lahore.

But then London has almost 10,000 double-decker buses and a massive underground train system to serve this population, including those who come for the day from outside. What has Lahore got? It has 324 buses for 12.8m people, no underground or overhead train service and the people cleverly take to motorcycles to move from one place to another.

The ban on Basant is primarily because of these law-breaking motorcyclists. The plunge is certainly downward. Does the ‘Lahore 2050 Plan’ tackle the transport problem, which is at the core of our urban discontent? Our readers know the answer. Till then our bureaucrats will use the names of honest architects and scholars to please our naïve rulers. Such is the city we live in.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2020