Plight of Mega cities
Mega cities of the world are
source of tourist and business attraction. People all around the world frequent
it not only for business purposes but also for leisure. There are 35 megacities in the world out of
these two are in Pakistan, namely Karachi and Lahore. Karachi being 11th
and Lahore at 29th position.
Though this is an accepted list for 2015 as per Wikipedia, but fact
cannot be ignored that Pakistan had last reliable census in 1998. Therefore, it can be safely assumed that
population considered for megacities of 2015 is an assumption. As per general perspective Karachi has a
population of more than 25million and Lahore is touching 17.5 million. In consideration with these figures Karachi should
be within first 5 of the world and Lahore would stand above 20th
position.
What is a megacity? As per the
dictionary a metropolitan having a population of 10 million. Is population the only factor which qualifies
a city to be megacity? Most of the people would certainly respond in
negative. In today’s world a megacity is
the city which not only has population of more than 10 million but also has the
infrastructure to support this population.
A look at Karachi and Lahore from perspective of infrastructure among
the top 35 megacities of world would certainly depict these in last five of the
world.
Globally infrastructure of
megacities are reinforced and upgraded continuously to support population;
their need to commute and right to healthy living conditions. When a city
becomes unmanageable, new city is developed and connected to the megacity
through high speed mass transits. Islam
also advocates development of new cities with increase in population.
Both these megacities are facing
constantly increasing population which in turn is increasing burden on limited
resources and infrastructure. Unfortunately, government is charging large
amounts under the name of commercialization fee, which in fact should be spent
on boosting underground infrastructure of the city. Instead of addressing these
issues ruling parties take care of their political objectives of plundering.
Everyday hundreds of people move
to these two cities, never to return back.
This influx of internal migration should be stopped to save these cities. Not by force but by choice and to activate
this option it is essential that smaller cities are developed. Development in smaller cities and towns will
attract these people back to their hometowns.
A developed city will automatically generate job opportunities, which
will in turn help to improve GDP.
