In the face of demolitions, very little will be left of Karachi
Business
December 22, 2020
KARACHI: Sustainable development remains a distant dream in Pakistan, as the government fails to consider an integrated planning approach, which takes into account the aspirations of communities and the vulnerability of the natural environment.
It resorts to destroying what it considers is ‘unplanned’. Architect and planner Arif Hasan held this attitude responsible for making people homeless and jobless in Karachi. Gentrification gets promoted and all that looks “bad/ugly” gets removed; and removing is “something we are very good at”.
Karachi has grown to a great extent. “If we look at stops and terminals, they have sprung up out of necessity, not out of the planning process,” he said, and now if all these were removed, very little would be left of Karachi.