Daily Times

Sir: Peshawar is in need of urgent expansion. After so many decades of unorganized growth of Peshawar, the city has turned into a muddled jungle of uncontrolled construction and expansion. An international airport is located in the middle of the city, which forces all traffic to go around in circles, while also stopping new high rise building construction in the middle of the city. There is no proper organisation to check the construction, zoning or other rules of the city. For example, Hayatabad, an area of Peshawar, was developed by a temporary organisation called the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) that was assigned the planning, design and construction of Hayatabad town a few years ago. But even after completion of the task, PDA is still looking after the town while no proper organisation with rules and authority has been created for this town. Another interesting aspect of Peshawar is the severe shortage of commercial areas. The city authorities have not developed or allocated any area for commercial activities. Therefore thousands of commercial organizations, including government offices, schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, offices, non-profit organisations, hostels, storage areas and even factories are operating in residential areas, using residential power and gas, while at the same time creating security threats for local residents and destroying infrastructure like roads, etc, of residential areas. The previous governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have failed to develop Peshawar into a metropolitan city, but the current government of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf has the golden opportunity to develop Peshawar and increase its popularity at the same time. By developing Peshawar into a metropolitan city, the government of KP will also help improve the security, traffic and other facilities of Peshawar, while also increasing the economic activities of the region, which will provide more prosperity to the people of KP.

ENGR SHAHRYAR KHAN BASEER

Peshawar