Vice Chancellor’s Message (P & R Vol.2 Issue 1)

How not to develop cities?

Once again, PIDE is providing you with substantive yet entertaining public policy thoughts, ideas and research for the curious in an enjoyable magazine. I congratulate the PIDE team on this issue which I hope will provoke you to join us in debating a better future. The story of Pakistan’s urban development illustrates very many faults: our lack of public sector capacity, the inability to develop local government, the intellectual inertia as well as the overwhelming elite capture. We remain besotted with 20th century central planning which meshes well with our inherited colonial extractive institutions. As a result, cities have been stifled through over-regulation.