Islamabad the joyless

Islamabad has a mayor for the first time. Time alone can tell if he will succeed in bringing any joy to one of the world’s dullest capitals. Going by the record of a full time cabinet minister to the capital territory for some time, there are not enough reasons to be sanguine about Islamabad’s future with a fulltime mayor. Vital services, like the supply of drinking water, remain paralysed in the city. All we hear is that the city will be made Asia’s most beautiful. The attitude of the city’s leaders seems to be: eat cake if you don’t have bread.

To add insult to injury, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has been systematically eradicating any possibilities for fun in the city. It has managed to dismantle the city’s best known cultural space, Kuch Khaas, as part of its campaign to remove commercial activity from the residential areas. The irony is that Kuch Khaas was established as a non-profit organisation. One year after its closure and the death of its founder, Shayan Afzal ‘Poppy’, the valiant team of young people left behind have been unable to find a new location. Rest in Peace, Islamabad’s most original and vibrant cultural forum.

Sadly, the latest signs indicate that the CDA has more ominous designs for the coming months. It has issued a stern formal warning against the use of residential areas for commercial activities. Reminding the public that it has already taken strict action by sealing various premises, the CDA has now given a final notice to all those “who are running Guest Houses, Schools, Offices, show Rooms, Restaurants, Boutiques, Clinics etc.”, to put an end to the nonconforming use of residential buildings, failing which the CDA shall be constrained to “cancel the allotment of the property besides sealing the premises and imposition of fine.”

This latest display of the CDA’s determination is justified by laws and supreme court orders to rid Islamabad of all kinds of commercial activities in the residential areas of the capital. It is difficult to question the legality of the CDA’s repeated campaigns in 2015 to dismantle famous restaurants, boutiques, salons and other outlets, including art galleries. Yet, several questions can be raised about taking the drive to its logical legal conclusion.

To begin with, there is no city in Pakistan or in the rest of the world where the aforementioned activities do not take place in residential areas. Do we really want to sanitise Islamabad to the point that it becomes completely unfriendly? Even the cantonments in Pakistan tolerate various businesses and educational institutions because they cater to the basic needs of the residents. For example, what is wrong with operating nurseries and kindergartens for small children within walking distances of their homes? Where does the CDA propose to move these centres of childcare?

A more rational approach would be to allow small-scale nurseries and primary schools to be accessible to families living in an area without using cars or hired transport. All government schools are established in the heart of residential areas for the same reason. If the prime minister can proudly visit a model school in a residential area, what is so wrong about the private sector setting up similar facilities to meet a basic need?

Now it seems that the killjoy (CDA) will eliminate all art galleries in residential areas. It is also threatening to close down all small clinics, hair salons or bridal parlours operating from houses, which – again – cater to the basic needs of the community.

Another bizarre element of the CDA’s drive is the attempt to close down guest houses in residential areas. The very notion of a guest house, as opposed to a hotel, is that it can be established in a house and provide more affordable accommodation. The likely result of the campaign would be that the capital would have no more guest houses. Never mind that no one has ever heard of a guest house in a commercial centre.

The sum total of the CDA’s demolition drive is to have a capital sans fun or facility. It would be the worst example of a regimented city. I agree that the wild growth of all sorts of enterprises was deforming the residential areas but it seems that there is no middle way. It is either a free for all or nothing at all. A practical way must be found to strike a balance between laws/court orders and universally accepted practices.

The CDA should look at other capitals in the world to assess how these issues have been addressed elsewhere. Nobody has taken exception to the hallmark British bed and breakfasts, guest houses in London’s residential areas, private schools in the residential quarters of Paris or corner delis in New York. And let’s not forget that like the great metropolises abroad, Pakistan’s major cities, other than Islamabad, are not afflicted by this strange desire to compartmentalise life.

Unless the minister of the capital territory and Islamabad’s new mayor focus on this ever-present threat to the capital’s composite makeup, the residents and visitors of the once-beautiful Islamabad should brace themselves for the city’s conversion to a vast, dull and lacklustre place.

Don’t forget that before all these diverse activities were undertaken in Islamabad, it had been described by a US diplomat as twice as big and quieter than the famous Arlington cemetery in Washington DC.

Email: saeed.saeedk@gmail.com