Lecture 9: Urbanization In Pakistan
25th Sep 2012
Lecture Outlines
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Urbanisation and urbanism in Pakistan
The urban ‘general context’ in Pakistan
Urbanisation and the poor: the urban poverty
challenge
Population and urban growth
The urban strategy
The phenomenon of migration
Urbanization and Urbanism in Pakistan
• The concentration of population in cities and towns is called urbanization. It
is to be distinguished from urban ways of life which are called urbanism
(Wirth, 1938).
• While urbanization is increasing at twice or thrice the rate of population
growth, urbanism is spreading at a still faster rate, extending to all parts of
the globe.
• Abu-Lughod (1991) has called the spread of urban ways of life as “the
urbanization of everybody”.
• Pakistan is, undoubtedly, rapidly urbanizing but urbanism is spreading even
more quickly, thereby transforming the country’s social structure as well as
the settlement system.
• About one third of Pakistan’s population live in urban areas, namely,
metropolitan corporations, cities, notified towns and municipalities.
• Urbanization in Pakistan has produced two mega cites, Karachi (estimated
to be 21–25 million or more as of April 2012), Lahore (about 7 million or
more) and six cities of one million or more, and 20–25 towns approaching
the one-quarter to half-a-million mark.
The Urban ‘General Context’ in Pakistan
• In March 1998 the total population of Pakistan was 130.6
millions of which approximately one third lived in the urban
environment.
• The official estimate of population for June 2000 was 137.6
million and that predicted for 2015 is 180.7 million, 42% of
whom will be urban dwellers.
• The increase in urban population between 1998 and 2015 is
likely to be 33 millions, many of whom will be poor.
• The challenge faced is that of identifying and generating more
resources of food, clothing, shelter, employment and the
Human Resource Development (HRD) of education, health,
population welfare, and water supply and sanitation.
Urbanization and the Poor
• The national per capita annual income is about $4434 , although there is
some variation between provinces.
• The average monthly household income is fairly constant across the country
at US$ 113, implying nearly four wage earners equivalent per household.
• The proportion of the urban population which falls below the poverty line, as
defined by the US$1 per capita per day, initially reduced during the 1990s
but is increasing again.
• Under the latest definition of poverty, the rise is alarming with an estimated
nearly 50% of the population living below the poverty line.
• Urban poor generally enjoy higher incomes than those in rural areas, they
suffer greater degrees of poverty associated.
• With overcrowding and deprivations in infrastructure and services which, in
turn, results in environmental pollution, health risks and associated
problems.
• The Human Development Centre (HDC) in Islamabad reports that “in urban
areas, the incidence of poverty is now considerably higher than in rural
areas”.
Population and Urban Growth
• The total urban population in Pakistan is expected to grow by approximately
33 million in 201 5.
• The annual natural rate of urban growth excluding migration, has fallen from
a high of 3.3 percent in the 1972 census to 2.2 percent in that of 1998.
• It is the poorest section of the community that has the highest growth rate,
magnifying the numbers of illiterate, vulnerable and least healthy citizens.
• The predicted urban population growth will have immense implications on
the urban planning and development processes requiring almost a doubling
of accommodation and urban services over the period.
• This will place a great strain particularly on food production, water
availability, education and health services, as well as employment needs if
the population is to achieve sustainability and not to degenerate into mass
poverty.
• Reduction in farm sizes through division by inheritance, increased
mechanization, and degradation of agricultural land due to water logging and
salinity all combine to reduce the demand for labour within the agricultural
sector.
• The ratio of employees in the agricultural sector declined by over 14% in the
period 1970 to 1998.
• All these factors manifest in increasing the urban population
The Urban Strategy
• Adopting institutional reforms by devolving responsibility for governance to
district councils and by strengthening these councils technically and
financially;
• Introducing improvements in the structure planning process of urban centers
with due regard to the improvements of existing or introduction of new
employment magnets.
• Creating information systems to facilitate effective governance; these to
concentrate initially on property identification and registration.
• Continuing development in urban infrastructure but focusing on trunk and
secondary networks in support of local self-help initiative for tertiary services.
• Developing mass transport in areas where large commuting populations
exist and generally encouraging and involving the private sector in
infrastructure service delivery.
• Providing land for the poorer communities, based on existing novel models,
building codes to be clear and available and the housing sector generally to
be given a high priority.
• Involving the private sector and grass-roots level communities in all stages
of urban development.
• Facilitate the generation of employment; and undertaking programmes
which are, by design, specifically aimed at assisting the poor.
Plans Development Expenditures:
Total and on Physical Planning and Housing (PP&H)
THE STRATEGY OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Pakistan’s urban and housing programmes are organized under
five policy areas, namely:
1. Housing and Katchi Abadi Improvement;
2. Provision of community utilities such as water supply,
sewerage, public transport, sanitation, etc., in cities and
villages;
3. Institution building for surveys, design and planning of cities,
formation of provincial and local planning and housing
departments and laboratories;
4. Government buildings and public officials’ housing as well as
the development of the national capital; and
5. Special projects, particularly for tribal areas, Azad Kashmir,
etc.
Percentage of the Plan Allocations by Programmes
The Phenomenon of Migration
• Economic factors play an important role in the household’s decision to
migrate but are not the only determinants.
• Economic development leads to structural transformation and as a result,
the share of agriculture sector declines while that of industrial sector
increases in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
• As the industrial output increases, employment opportunities at the urban
centers also increases and people begin moving from the rural subsistence
agriculture sector to the urban areas in search of better employmentopportunities and better living conditions.
• This phenomenon of increase in the urban population as a consequence of
the mass movement of people to urban centers is commonly referred to as
urbanization.
• However, movement of people from the rural subsistence agricultural sector
is not the only cause of urbanization, the higher population growth rate
especially in the developing world is also a major reason of the growing
trend of urbanization.
• The process of urbanization on the one hand, provides opportunities of
better standard of living, while it is also having certain negative effects such
as congestion, environmental pollution, and an increase in crimes and so on.
• In Pakistan rural-urban migration is nearly 2% annually .
• Migration is directly associated with the expansion of trade and industry and
inversely with the distance.
• The process of migration especially internal migration in Pakistan is an old
phenomena. Its not only provides opportunities for employment but also
improves the socio-economic condition of migrant households.
• In Pakistan both the volume and nature of internal migration have varied
overtime and so their impact on migrant households and on economy.
• Evidence from Southeast Asia as well as from South Asia reveals that the
pattern of internal migration is changing and it appears to be more urban
oriented and female oriented.
• Rural urban migration is seen as two stage process. During the first stage,
the unskilled workers spend some time in informal urban sector from which
they move on to the second stage, where they find a more permanent
modern sector job in the formal sector.
• It is false assumption by a large quantity of literature on migration that most
of the societies are sedentary and that migration is an exception. Rather,
migration may be considered as a rule and needs to be considered as one of
the important livelihood strategies by rural households
Migration Classification
Migration can be classified in the contexts of
• Cause: Forced and voluntary
• Distance: Intra regional, inter regional, international refugees/asylum
seekers/international displaced persons
The positive outcomes of migration:
• Positive impact on the economy, labour market and reducing skills shortages
as well as the increased tax revenues.
• Influence the budgetary position of the receiving country
• Impact on the trade between the immigrant’s home and host country.
The negative outcomes of migration:
• Migration to a new place often requires the migrants to change their life style
e.g dressing patterns, foods and ceremonies, which is a big blow to the
traditional cultures.
• The identity crisis for the new generation of the immigrants.
• The migration of educated and skilled people from a rural to an urban setting
creates a vacuum in the rural area.