Adil Najam
Speaking at inaugural ceremony of the Bagh Ibne Qasim in Karachi, General Musharraf announced that one of the tallest buildings in the world is planned to be built in Karachi.
How tall, you ask? Well, the word from the top is all of 1947 feet. One assumes that this number is no coincidence. I guess there will be something special on the 14th floor and somehow August will also be commemorated.
According to the Daily Times (Feburary 28, 2007):
One of the tallest buildings of the world will be constructed in Karachi, President Pervez Musharraf told a ceremony in connection with the inauguration of Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim here on Tuesday night. The president referred to a project pertaining to a beach and island’s development, and said this would be a mega project of international standard. He said that land for the project would be reclaimed from the sea and added that the centre of the project would be a 1,947-foot high building. “Inshallah we will make it. We must show the world that this is an emerging, progressive and dynamic country and we are second to none. We know how to handle ourselves. We know what progress and prosperity means and that is what we need to show to everyone,� Musharraf said. The project would not affect the environment, he added.
There has been, of course, much fanfare about the Centaurus 7-star Hotel project in Islamabad, and I remain skeptical about the hyperbole accompanying these projects until I actually see them completed. I will reserve my comments on the trumpeted building itself until I see actual plans and designs for it and until it actually materializes in reality. One has heard of too many such grandiose projects that never transpired to get all excited about them just yet. In this case, the legality and appropriateness of the sale of the island where this is to be built remains in question.
However, I find the logic presented by General Musharraf to be rather confusing, even disturbing. I certainly share his desire to be seen as “an emerging, progressive and dynamic country” that is “second to none.” However, it escapes me how building a huge tower will make as any of the above. Moreover, I have absolutely no idea what he means by “we know how to handle ourselves” or how constructing such a building will demonstrate that we do. Most importantly, I do know that “progress and prosperity” is to be measured by means other than the height of one’s buildings.
I do not wish to sound cynical. I really do not. If this actually happens, and if it is well designed and well executed, I will join with my fellow-Pakistanis in a collective bhangra. But, until then, I remain skeptical mostly because the motivation to build this seems misplaced. There could be many good reasons to build such a grand project. And there are many good ways to achieve the objective of demonstrating that Pakistan is “an emerging, progressive and dynamic country” that is “second to none.” But neither is the best match for the other.
To be fair, I think the other things that Gen. Musharraf said in the speech – which were not reported in the story about the tall building – were more on the mark on how to demonstrate that “we know what progress and prosperity means.” For example, according to The News story on the same event the President did show a deeper understanding of the city’s challenges and priorities:
President Musharraf listed a lack of clean drinking water, the electricity shortage, and a lack of cleanliness as Karachi’s current problems. He said the electricity problem would also be resolved, and that the city had required 2200 megawatts of electricity per year but now with a population of 15 million its power requirement has risen to 3300 megawatts. Karachi’s demand has increased by 50 percent, he added. But he said We will resolve this problem. Referring to the city’s water problem, he said he had provided K-III for 100 mgd water and now he would back up the K-IV water project. President Musharraf said that Karachi city should also be cleaned and for this purpose negotiations were be held with a private firm for a solid waste management project which would resolve the cleanliness problem.
However, the same story also points out that the President “directed environmental experts not to create hurdles in the development of the city” and went on to say:
If we have to make roads for the development of the city and for this if we have to chop the trees, we will do it but then we will also plant more trees.
He was obviously referring to environmental objections to the development of the islands off Karachi. This attitude of seeing environmental concerns as ‘hurdles’ to development does not bode well and is at least two decades outdated in the policy thinking on sustainable development. Having environment and development go together is not only possible; it is absolutely necessary for countries like Pakistan and cities like Karachi. So, President sahab, have your tall building if it pleases you; but, please, do not pit environment versus development in this way. It serves neither the interests of development, nor of the environment, and certainly not of Karachi or of Pakistan.
Most of the really tall buildings built or being planned in the world are the result of ego trips rather than need. I’m sure that if this proposed building really comes to fruition,we’ll enter the record books as the poorest country to have a super-tall building. It’s technically possible with resources available to us and investment from the Gulf, but we clearly should be devoting those resources and funds to more essential and higher priority needs.
On the issue of fire safety, no fire brigade in the world can reach to the upper stories of high rises. Provision has to be made in the building itself with active and passive systems,and access for fire fighters. At present I don’t think there is a single prominent building in Pakistan with a full and working sprinkler system for fire fighting. It shows how far we have to go.
Let’s not forget that the KPT recently built an underpass in Karachi with much fanfare but didn’t have adequate provision for storm water drainage, relying instead on other agencies to take care of that problem. This was shown up in the first rains when the underpass became a lake. We have a long history of taking half-baked measures not fully thought out.
PS: Aqil… That point about savings rate is a very pertinent one. I’ve been looking for MPS and MPC figures for Pakistan. My fear and guess is that Pakistan has fallen below even the traditional MPS of 0.07 …. (bearing in mind that for a truly sustainable economic growth the economy needs an MPS of 0.20)…
Dear Aqil,
Indeed. This (polarization) is what we are witnessing in Pakistan today.
Yasir, I hear you on your point about making the Mullahs irrelevant in this very subtle way, but I think excessive consumerism is only going to polarize the society more seriously and possibly make some people overly angry. Besides, it is having other very serious consequences such as people running after nothing but money and the fact that economic growth can not be sustained unless we have a high enough domestic saving rate. For quite some time, Pakistan’s challange has been to increase domestic savings to help us generate enough domestic investment to fuel our economic growth without being overly dependent on foreign investment. The government is evading this issue at the peril of our economic future as well as its own prospects of survival (imagine the possibility of rioting in case there is an economic downturn).
If the project provides jobs and training to a large number of Pakistani engineers and involves transfer of experties in constructing tall buildings, then it can serve a useful purpose. But if they are going to bring mostly foreign engineers, then one may wonder what the excitement is about, especially considering the other issues (like the environment, disaster management, electricity supply, who would want to live or set up offices in this building etc) that have been pointed out in earlier posts.
If we look at priority areas, there are plenty of other things that should come first, such as solving Karachis problems of transport, garbedge disposal, clean water etc. Then there is a need to develop a vast network of roads and railway lines all over the country to allow easy travel. These along with the construction of things like school and hospital buildings throughout Pakistan would also involve a lot of business for the construction industry and naturally result in employment for a large number of people.
So while its ok to join the bhangra if this building gets completed (provided it is not an environmental disaster), I don’t think it makes sense to get that excited.