Raza Rumi
A week long sojourn in Islamabad just came to an end. It was not the Islamabad that I had lived in or the one that my memory was intimate with. It has changed and perhaps forever.
I have been an accidental resident of Islamabad as I was thrown into the sleepy folds of the capital by imperatives of securing a livelihood. Lahoris can never be content with any other city. But Islamabad’s serenity as a stark contrast to the urban mess of Pakistan was most endearing to say the least. Even its cultural wastelands were forgivable for the communion with Nature was a splendid alternative to civilisation. Thus the sprawling greenbelts of Islamabad and its wild foliage became a source of inspiration and muse. I left the city three years ago with fond memories.
But the return of this accidental native was not too charming. Islamabad over the last three years has confronted a development paradigm that reflects much of what is wrong with the elite-led progress in Pakistan. Whilst the political fissures have also erupted in the form of terrorism and activism around the issue of deposed judges, it is the brazen model of urban development that remains most worrisome.
Express-ways and highways have been built all over the place that can facilitate fast paced cars, cavalcades and power caravans. But the pedestrians who by even conservative estimates are 30 per cent of commuters find themselves at the wrong side of history. They have been virtually bypassed or at worst humiliated. Many of the express-ways have no provision of underground walkways or overhead bridges. Small wonder, that the absolute poor of Pakistan are also nearly the same percentage and almost as invisible.
The natural gifts of Islamabad have been mercilessly chopped in the name of widening the roads or even erecting senseless structures. Tracts of green areas that would bloom in the spring and sway in the monsoons have all gone. Barren squares reveal the idiocy of the initial layout of Islamabad that Nature had shielded for so long.
Where else in the world would find a public park space rented out to a global corporation and that too of dubious credentials such as the McDonalds. And, if the purpose was to entertain the hapless Islamabadites then why not patronise a local chain? This is crass commercialism being actively promoted by gurus of modernization and elites who find the global signs as a proof of having arrived. All of this has happened at the expense of the public aesthetic and values. Islamabad of today with its copycat musicals and made-to-order tourist villages is nothing but an attempt in cultural annihilation. Amazing that a city next to Gandhara and capital of the Indus valley terms Broadway remakes as high culture!
The original Islamabad-wallas remember how the CDA installed dustbins sported the chaste Urdu-Persian word Khashaak in bold. No more. It is now all English wonderland and a signpost on a major highway displays the route to “Atwar bazaar”. Since when has the mighty state language lost its relevance. If this was to be the future of Urdu, then why was there a need to alienate our fellow Pakistanis in the Eastern Wing now Bangladesh in the name of a uniform national language.
Believe it or not, Ramna, a Bengali name was used for the old sectors. If in the 1960s the Bengalis complained of excessive investments in Islamabad they were termed as traitors. Today, a similar fetish for capital investments in Islamabad remains unchanged. The complaints are muted often sidelined due to the bomb blasts and the glitz of highways and underpasses. In stark contrast, the poor relative town of Rawalpindi is quite neglected where a flood at Nullah Lai ravages segments of population and their livelihoods each year and where the martial and non-marital divides are difficult to overlook.
Islamabad continues to grow and is liked by many including the foreign diplomats thanks to its wondrous surroundings. But we are keen to make it a mess. Where have big roads and speed-ways been a substitute for traffic management and integrated urban planning? Even an undergraduate would know that. And, why is there no public transport system in place if this were the best that we want to showcase in the world.
While the entire country has been administered the magic dose of devolution, Islamabad remains ‘undevolved’ and its administration is highly centralized reflecting the culture of an overarching and central state. These are not accidental contradictions but symptoms of the larger malaise.
About time the Islamabadis woke up and shunned the flashy development for more substantive progress that includes the poor, creates livelihood beyond consumerism, saves the trees and focuses on long term urban vision rather than short term infrastructure feats.
A version of this post also appeared in the daily News.
Raza also blogs at PakTeaHouse, Lahorenama and taraqee
Thank you Raza for writing a very nice article, but I think Fauzia Minallah’s comment is accurate, she has called spade a spade. I think you are wrong when you say it is not about individuals, unfortunately in Pakistan it is all about individuals and I wish you had expressed the same ‘shock’ when Mr. Lashari was responsible for opening fast food restaurants in public parks in Lahore. I am a resident of F 7/3 in Islamabad and I am more than happy that Lashari’s yet another attempt at turning a public Park into a mini golf club has been thwarted by the Islamabad High Court. I am grateful to citizens like Ms. Shirin Mazari, Ms. Minallah and Dr Daudpota who opposed the initial ‘demented’ project of Lashari’s buddy Sharabeel who wanted to start the commercial project in a public park used by the residents of nearby slums. So Mr Rumi it is about individuals and they have a great influence on these ‘pro elite’ policies and misplaced priorities of ‘development’ .
Change is unavoidable. We have to change and facilitate the requirements of the present and the future. If a road is to be widened it has to be widened. Those greenbelts Islamabad used to have were not to be kept forever. In fact those belts were there to facilitate the requirements of the future. Those greenbelts always had wild growth on it and they were never maintained as planned roadside gardens.
I wish if modern mass transit system would have been created in the space available, it would have been extremely beneficial both for the commoners and the elite. In a social activity, I approached Mr. Lashari and requested him to integrate requirements of the cyclists in this whole roads expansion planning. We should have dedicated lanes for cyclists all over Islamabad so that our children can go to their schools on their bikes and tourists can also roam around in Islamabad on bikes as well. Now that the price of the fuel has gone beyond the reach and the pollution fuel creates, it is all the more important that our system must encourage cycling. Mr. Lashari promised to give it a serious thought. I hope he remembers that. I consider Mr. Lashari as an extra ordinary human being with a vision and potential to work wonders.
Interesting discussion though I have to add that let us not focus too much on individuals. I think Kamran Lashari is an efficient public servant with a good track record – he uplifted Lahore and has made several contributions to the city. Similalry, he has added much activity to Islamabad’s sleepy enviorns.
This piece is not about him at all. Lashari is an implementer of the public policy that is set by larger, powerful interests.
I have ranted on the way policy is formulated, what it prioritises, whom it serves and whom it ignores. And of course it should be clear that environment is NOT a priority at all –
I think you are being unfair.
Islamabad is growing. this nostalgia about keeping it as it was would only make it a slum and a horrendous example like our other large cities. I think Kamran Lashaari has done a great job of making this a city that I can continue to be proud of as someone who grew up there and loves it still.
I wish there was DARAKHT BACHAO TEHREEK in Lahore when Lashari chopped those beautiful old mango trees on the main Boulevard of Gulberg and replaced them with palm trees. He tried that in Islamabad but he had to face a lot of criticism here . Infact he complains in his ‘staged’ interviews that everything becomes a controversy in Islamabad, and I think he has faced several court case here too. Unfortunately , always a ‘big fish’ comes to his rescue and now it is some one in the PPP, why on earth would he get a 3rd term. Roads are not made for charity someone somewhere is making a lot of money .