Lahore now the most polluted city in Pakistan?

So much for “development”, so much for the overpasses, the underpasses, the Foodstreets, Jashn-e-Baharan, the Lahore Road, Rehabilitation Project, all of the PHA’s many “efforts”, beautification and so on.  So much for it.  Lahore is now the most polluted city in Pakistan.  Surely someone should accept the fact that the medicine is killing the patient.

The newspaper article below is also an indictment of the thoughtless commercialization policies that have fuelled commercial and industrial activity within the city and, often, even in quiet residential areas.  It’s an indictment of how inequitable our cities are becoming; and how anti-public space and anti-people they have become.  Arif Hasan has called Karachi an “unethically planned city.” Given the short-sighted pursuit we give to the notion of a “World Class City”, I think Lahore is fast earning the same moniker.

Industrialisation, mounting pollution threaten Lahore

Thursday, September 24, 2009
By Ali Raza (The News http://tiny.cc/hQxLT)

LAHORE: Rapidly increasing industrialization and commercialisation has turned the provincial metropolis — once known as the City of Gardens — into one of the most polluted cities in the country.

Even residential localities are not safe from increasing trends of commercialization and industrialization because many industrial zones, which were established some years ago outside the city, are now situated right in middle of the City.

Light and heavy industrial units have been established in various city localities i.e. Misri Shah, Baghbanpura, Mughalpura, Daroghewala, Bhagat Pura, Chah Miran, Shadbagh and other localities along the Bund Road and GT Road. These industries include steel foundries, steel re-rolling mills, kilns, steel furnaces, scrap yards, plastic recycling industry, marble grinding, furniture making and several other kinds of cottage industries. All of these industries are spreading different types of pollutions especially air, noise, vibration and heat.

A Lahore returnee

A friend who just returned to Lahore after spending years in Europe wrote this letter. I quite liked this piece of writing: therefore, with his permission I am posting it here with suitable edits. I think sometimes stuff out of heart leads to great writing. Raza Rumi

Hey there,

Have been back in the mothersisterland for a week now and the heat has finally started to make its way up to my head. I wish this could have been an ideal rant but sorry to disappoint you ol’ chap it will have to be a slackjawed late night verbal discharge of reflections that one occasionally likes to share on muggy late September night following a dreadfully monotonous day that the whole nation celebrates as eid. The culture shock that I was promised I will get on my return to Pakistan has finally started to manifest itself in loud, vulgar ufone promos on the phone, evolution gone bad displays of road manners and absolutely mind numbing, finer sensibilities gone apeshit offences on TV with grainy reception. Add the torture of relatives arriving unannounced, replete with nuclear families and ofcourse the obligatory loadshedding (though I have been spared from the actually horrid blackouts). The grime, the dust and the hustle bustle doesn’t offend as much, on contrary it serves as a reminder of what actually defines my Pakistaniat and makes me feel I’m actually home.

It’s time for September’s Critical Mass Event!!!

Fellow Lahoris, Critical Mass Lahore has survived the summer and has been enjoyed through Ramzan.  Now, it’s time to rally once more for the cause of public transport, sustainable development, democratic public spaces and, of course, the right to have fun on our own streets!!!

Join Lahore’s 10th Critical Mass Event at 5:00pm this Sunday 27 September 2009 from the Zakir Tikka intersection, Sarwar Road, Lahore Cantonment.

Critical Mass is about having clean cities that provide mobility and accessibility. Critical Mass is about clean transport. Critical Mass is about putting public good over private interest. Critical Mass is about making friends. Critical Mass is about reclaiming public space. Critical Mass is about showing a man or a woman on a cycle is the same as one in a ten lac car. Critical Mass is about democracy.

What do I need to participate in a Critical Mass Event?

All you need is a road-worthy cycle and an sense of fun. Buy, beg, borrow or steal a cycle if you have to, but join the Mass.  Come, cycle around Lahore.  Reclaim your city, and have more fun than you can imagine!

Where and how else do Critical Mass Events take place?

Critical Mass events are typically held on the last Friday of each month in over 250 cities all over the world. In Lahore, it is held on the last Sunday of every month.  For information about Critical Mass Lahore, be at Zakir Tikka at 5:00pm this Sunday 27 September 2009 or visit the Critical Mass Lahore Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38992998526) or the Critical Mass Lahore blog. 

Important: Be on time!!!

Savign Punjab on Punjabi connection (a must-visit blog)

A dear friend and a former colleague Sukhie has started a lovely blog that brings together the Punjabi connections spread far and wide. This new post is worth a look:

Saving Punjab
A Sikh architect is helping to preserve cultural sites in the north Indian state still haunted by 1947’s heart-wrenching Partition

* By Geoffrey C. Ward
* Photographs by Raghu Rai
* Smithsonian magazine, September 2009

Read more here

Honouring Zaheer Kashmiri and the PWA, Lahore, Sept 9

Courtesy Beena Sarwar

Dr Farrukh Gulzar, the progressive minded medical practitioner from Lahore who was the driving force behind the Reference for Dr M. Sarwar and the 1950s student movement on Aug 8, has now thrown his energies into helping organise a remembrance for the late poet Zaheer Kashmiri. Friends in Lahore, please do attend. Here is the invitation he sent:

Zaheer Kashmiri

AHL-E-DIL MILTAY NAHEENH, AHL-E-NAZAR MILTAY NAHEENH
ZULMAT-E-DAURANH MAI, KHURSHEED-E-SEHR MILTAY NAHEENH
–ZAHEER KASHMIRI
(Translation:
Gone are the sensitive hearts or insightful visionaries
In this oppressive darkness, no morning sun arises)