akistan’s governance crisis continues to create problems for its people. These issues are visible in big cities, small towns and villages.

The governments frequently claim to have introduced reforms and improvements but people rarely see any positive results. The growing gulf between the state, government, and the public with regard to improving governance is a serious challenge, marked prominently by a lack of trust.

The fundamental problem is that we lack comprehensive frameworks at the national, provincial and local levels to address the basic rights of the people and resolve the issues connected to them. A system operating without substantial citizen participation cannot establish development on strong foundations. Nor can it have meaningful credibility.

Big city governance in Pakistan has not only evolved rapidly over the past two decades but also deteriorated significantly. Reeling under sustained population pressure and the influx of people from smaller cities and rural areas in search of employment, the management and governance flaws are increasingly visible and stark.

For the most part, we have treated big cities in the same manner as small cities. We have avoided taking the extraordinary steps necessary for development, transparency and effective administration of big cities.

Big city public transport appears to be quite ineffective. Despite the introduction of the Orange Line train and Metro Bus in Lahore, for instance, a large part of the city’s transport system still depends on Qingqi rickshaws and motorcycles. If these are banned, the city’s transport system will be severely disrupted.

Safe drinking water, sewage disposal and playgrounds are other major issues in the city.

Pakistan’s biggest cities - including Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Multan – all suffer from a lack of sound development planning. There is no clear roadmap indicating what we want these cities to look like in ten years. Similarly, there is no clear development model for the new towns being established within these cities, nor any indication of how far they meet the requirements of social justice and equity.

In all big cities today, we find a large number of workers who have come from small cities and villages and lack access to proper housing. Many of them sleep on footpaths. Their entire life revolves around these spaces. Some spend their nights at various shrines. Clean public toilets are almost non-existent. This causes great inconvenience to citizens, especially women.

The commercialisation of playgrounds in big cities has pushed sporting activities beyond the reach of poor and underprivileged youth. Only the affluent can access them. There has been some improvement in this regard in Lahore, but in other major cities of the Punjab, there has been no significant progress.

It is not that we lack resources for big cities. Poor planning, unfair distribution and incorrect priorities are the root causes of these problems. Nepotism, corruption and malpractices in the name of resource administration have also affected the development of big cities.

Modern governance systems around the world emphasise autonomous local governments and the devolution of power to the lowest level, especially in the context of big cities. However, in our case, there are no functional local governments in many cities. Where local self government exists, it is weak and often fails to meet pubic needs. The absence of autonomous local governments in big cities and the provincial government’s failure to grant them political, constitutional, administrative and financial powers is worsening the problems.

Lahore, currently, has no local government system. In fact, it is not just Lahore; the entire Punjab lacks a functional local government system.

Even the mayor of Karachi – who comes from the same political party as the provincial chief minister - appears helpless. The situation in Peshawar and Quetta is also bad. Other cities of the Punjab are also unable to carry out transparent local development due to the absence of local governments.

Big city public transport appears to be quite ineffective. Despite the introduction of the Orange Line Train and Metro Bus in Lahore, a large part of the city’s transport system is still dependent on Qingqi rickshaws and motorcycles.

The takeaway is clear: if provincial governments link the development of big cities with autonomous local government systems and empower them, it will greatly help in solving their problems. Sustainable improvement will not occur until our big cities have autonomous governments that can plan and execute development.

Leaving the development of big cities to provincial governments, provincial bureaucracy and Provincial Assembly members has harmed the development of these cities. Provincial governments seem to prefer centralisation rather than establishing autonomous local governments. This mindset is not only creating problems for big cities but is also significantly worsening the issues of the weaker and marginalised sections of the society.

If one examines the development model of Pakistan’s big cities, a class-based development pattern is clearly visible. While some areas are developing rapidly, others are being left further behind. In other words, the development model is shaped on class lines. Lahore’s development model, for example, prioritises new settlements, resulting in stagnation of the old city.

Today, large infrastructure projects are changing the face of big cities. This is partly the reason there is so much environmental pollution.

It must be understood that the increasing pressure of migration from small cities and villages to big cities is due to economic backwardness and lack of employment opportunities there. When small towns and villages lack jobs and lag behind, people are forced to move to big cities.

If we want to manage our big cities well and ascertain sustainable development, we must improve the conditions in the surrounding small cities, towns and villages. Provincial governments and federal policymakers cannot ignore small cities, towns and villages and still hope to solve the problems of their big cities.

We need a comprehensive and integrated development framework for big cities. It may be called a Five-Year Development Programme. It needs to be approved by the relevant provincial assembly so that development projects are not planned in a haphazard manner. Our rulers must resist the temptation of announcing development projects without adequate homework.

Big cities require community centres, playgrounds and healthy extra-curricular activities that do not needing huge spending. Currently, there are no recreational opportunities for boys and girls in big cities.

Another major task in big cities is regulation and accountability of government institutions. This requires the political will to provide the necessary resources for the job.

Provincial governments have to make autonomous local governments part of their priorities. Currently, we do not even have annual development models or programmes for our cities. As a result, new projects often get announced without completing the ongoing ones. The priorities are not set systematically; instead, we engage in a competition to gain political advantage by announcing popular projects.

All administrative institutions related to development in big cities should be taken out of provincial government control and placed under local governments. Institutions like the LDA, the KDA, the MDA and the FDA should be in local hands.

The provincial governments’ bid to run big cities through companies and authorities is not a good idea. This appears to be an attempt to build an alternative to local governments, indicating that our rulers not serious about the local government system. Any companies and authorities so formed should function under the autonomous local governments so that they remain accountable at the right level.

Some people have recently suggested that big cities like Lahore and Karachi should be governed like Islamabad. This is a dangerous idea. It will not solve the problems but will create more chaos by causing further centralisation. It is only by transferring powers to the lower level, that we can make the development model of big cities better and more transparent.

Key issues in the development of big cities include education, health, water supply, sewage and drainage, road construction, playgrounds, graveyards, public transport, law and order, effective policing, footpaths for pedestrians, removal of encroachments, environmental pollution and managing the urban sprawl.

We will continue to see contradictions, conflicts and complications in big city development until we formulate a development framework for big cities through consultation.

The writer is a public policy expert and political analyst. He can be reached at [email protected]