Academics must convince Sindh to devolve powers to grassroots level: Javed Jabbar

KARACHI: Javed Jabbar, former federal minister and senator, urged academics, working on the planning issues of Pakistan’s economic hub, to present their findings to the chairman of the Standing Committee of Sindh Assembly to play a role in devolution of powers to grassroots level.

Speaking at the third two-day international Conference on Urban and Regional Planning (CURP) at the NED University of Engineering and Technology on Friday, the former senator said local government should be fully involved in urban planning instead of being virtually powerless in the current situation.

“All organisations inherently resist innovation, because innovation means changing the status quo,” he said, while talking about the conference theme “Innovation in Planning and Practice”.

He urged for dialogue and new ideas to challenge what has been going on for the last five years or 50 years.

“More enlightened legislation is needed to solve the problems of Karachi, persuading both civil and military splits to give up some of their powers in order to achieve a collective good and have some semblance of coherence and coordination and integration that will enable innovation in planning,” he added.

The conference aimed to provide scholars from different countries an opportunity to come together for an exchange of views, ideas, and information regarding what was being done in their respective countries towards extension, improvement, and refinement of historical knowledge.

In view of that, Dr Mansoor Ali, WEDC, Loughborough University, UK, presented findings of a paper “Exploring the Virtual Market for Recycling”.

The paper discussed improving waste reuse, recycling, and uberisation, which deals with a transition to an operational model where economic agents exchange under-utilised capacity of existing assets or human resources.

“Recycling in itself is a business, and that is where the opportunity comes from,” Dr Mansoor Ali said, adding that combined with connectivity and digitisation it had the potential to change things drastically for small businesses and stimulate economic activity.

It discussed a case study from Bangkok on garbage disposal, which is one of the most neglected aspects within the city of Karachi.

Participants of the conference also spoke about the recent demolition drive at the Empress Market and its impact on the livelihoods of those affected under the contest of legality and legitimacy.

A paper by Prof Dr Noman Ahmed, dean faculty of architecture and management sciences, brought to light the importance of documentation in this regard.

His paper, “Examining Mapping as an innovative Tool for Community Empowerment in the Context of Unplanned Settlements; A Case of Karachi, Pakistan” showed that mapping came to the rescue of more than 1,200 villages (goths) in the city.

He discussed the works of slain architect and social activist Perween Rahman in the domain of mapping peripheral villages. Dr Noman noted that evictions only happened to those, who were either not politically favoured or connected or the ones who did not posses any kind of documentational support.

The paper also discussed the mechanism involved in the distribution of agriculture and other land for settlements, and the professors said the land subdivision happened in four ways.

“One is where the agricultural land is divided, which is then distributed for various purposes, secondly the subdivision which is done by trained and experienced middlemen on their own, and they supply and sell that land to their clientele, thirdly there is collusion between state functionaries with development authorities and in some cases, directly from the board of revenue, and fourthly, any kind of political outfit or an outfit possessing any muscle power would just occupy a parcel of land, hold on to it, and redistribute it to their potential beneficiaries, without taking the state provisions into account at all,” Dr Noman explained in detail.

He further shed light on evictions and how they came about in these circumstances due to lack of documentation. The professor also spoke about the potential of the mapping tool as an employment generator, and a way to attract donors into a certain area of interest for development purposes.

Earlier, NED University Vice Chancellor Dr Sarosh Hashmat Lodi in his presiding remarks emphasised on the triple helix concept of university-industry-government relationships initiated in the 1990s.

“We have to have a system, in which the research is done by us, but it has to be driven by the industry... the innovation impact will come through the government,” he said, pointing out that a majority of research in Pakistan was wasted because of a lack of mechanism to implement those ideas.

He emphasised on the role of universities as contributors to the economy. “The universities are not about teaching; the universities are not about training; the universities are not about only developing skills; the universities are about creating an impact and contributing towards the country’s economy,” he added.

The second day of the conference was held on Saturday with 12 technical presentations, including the conference theme address comprised of six national and six international speakers.