Issues in Urban Planning and Policy: The Case Study of Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

Since Pakistan’s independence from the British in 1947, Lahore has struggled to reconcile the two parallel cities that developed under a century of colonial rule. Old Lahore, laid out as a typical city from the medieval period, was largely contained within its defensive, fortified walls four kilometres from the bank of river Ravi. It had developed as a network of densely packed streets containing houses, bazaars and royal monuments alike. This organic city form was interrupted when the British demolished its walls and constructed their administrative apparatus on the surrounding plains. Although the new city that emerged was well planned with modern thoroughfares, canals and railway tracks, it was built on the premise of exclusion that set the course for its future development into the post-colonial era. The story of planning this multidimensional city over the subsequent seventy-odd years, which has no doubt seen some successes, is a tumultuous one. This chapter intends to explore the various efforts made to organize the chaos of a city unsettled by the aftereffects of colonization and the trauma of partition through to the present. All the while, Lahore has been a rapidly sprawling regional capital at the heart of Pakistan’s most populous province of Punjab. This chapter will include a review of the various policies, plans and legal frameworks that were introduced, along with the institutional setup intended to enforce these policies. The city’s master plans are discussed, including their soundness, the fate of their implementation and the results, if any, that were realized. Perhaps most importantly, in light of the debatable success of past planning efforts, an attempt has been made to flesh out Lahore’s current trajectory of urban planning and policy, and provide recommendations for promoting sustainable development as Lahore stands at the cusp of becoming Pakistan’s second megacity.