A Planner's 2008 Planning Wishlist for Pakistan

"Set city limits. Other than Karachi, Pakistani cities are not limited by the natural environment. As a result, they have tended to grow outward rather than upward. Pakistan’s urban experience is urban sprawl. Endless miles of road, cluttered with strip development, connecting new residential areas to older, now commercialized, former residential area. This must stop. Setting city limits will not only stem sprawl — it will encourage the more prudent use of existing land — it will prevent the further devastation of peri-urban agricultural land. Most profoundly, by forcing us to, literally, confront our urban development rather than ignoring it by setting up new developments elsewhere, it might provide the means to stem rural to urban migration. Cities should not be the only place in Pakistan where a man can expect to earn a respectable livelihood."