Today we are going to feature Model Town, Lahore as one of the best planned localities of Pakistan. In the past we’ve featured North Nazimabad, Karachi and Eight bazaars of Faisalabad in the same series.
Model Town is designed in the shape of a square with major roads dividing it into blocks vertically, horizontally and diagonally. The area of Model Town is 5.9 square kilometers (or 1463 acres). The center of the square shape is a circular park. I don’t know the exact dimension but somewhere I’ve read the circumference of this circular park is more than 2km. Besides the obvious symmetry of design, what else has always attracted me to Model Town’s planning is its generous allotment for green areas and parks. Almost 19% of model town’s area is alloted to parks. Another 4% area is alloted to plant nurseries and playgrounds. This ratio of open area (23%) to residential area (56%) is hard to match in most of the well-planned localities of Pakistan.
Recently I went through the whole process of applying for NICOP online through NADRA’s website and received our cards by mail a few days back. It was kind of a roller coaster ride as some aspects were clear in the beginning and others weren’t. The whole process has educated me enough that I wanted to pass my experiences on to others who are interested in applying online for NICOP. 
ICC Champions Trophy which was to be held in Pakistan in September 2008 got postponed to October 2009 due to the security concerns of not one, not two but four ICC members. New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and England remained adamant throughout negotiations that inspite of Pakistan Cricket Board’s remarkably well job in persuading them to visit Pakistan they have genuine fears regarding the security of their players. 
