State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Dr Ishrat Hussain has stressed the need of finding local solutions to the urban and regional planning. He was speaking as chief guest at the inaugural session of the second seminar on 'Urban and Regional Planning' here on Saturday.
The day-long moot was held under the auspices of the Department of Architecture and Planning, NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi.
The SBP governor urged the universities and the institutions of higher learning to undertake independent research in this sphere.
He praised the NED Department of Architecture and Planning for developing linkages with some of the European and regional universities, including the Catholic University, Belgium, Technical University, Eindhoven, the Netherlands; and University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.
Dr Ishrat Hussain also emphasised the need for undertaking medium-term planning as he was of the opinion that because the world is changing very fast the long-term is very difficult to sustain.
He asked the universities and institutions of higher learning in the country to undertake research and development to come up with solutions for the society.
He said the cities are being constantly affected in terms of quality of life of the people as well as the infrastructure, adding that a multitude of factors, including the declining capacity of the institutions was responsible for such a state of affairs.
NED Architecture and Planning Department Chairman Professor Dr Noman Ahmed said there are 20 delegates and over 300 participants of the day-long moot, and they represent different universities in the country and abroad.
He said the students of Urban and Regional Planning Department and officials of the local government and other departments are also attending.
Dr Noman pointed out that the proceedings would be published in a book form and this would be circulated among academics around the world related to this profession, universities of the country as well as the professionals related to planning.
He was of the view that one of the major problems being experienced in Pakistan is the rapidly increasing rate of urbanisation without any understanding and knowledge to support that.
Prominent Architect Arif Hasan, in his key-note address, spoke of his experiences in the planning process pertaining to various Asian, Central Asian, and Middle Eastern cities. He said these cities are almost the same and there is difference in them and in Karachi, and all of them were smaller cities before the World War II.
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