KARACHI: The arts and ideas festival organised by the Sindh Madressatul Islam University (SMIU) concluded on Sunday after four eventful days which were graced by lectures by foreign scholars, national experts and several other activities in which faculty and students enthusiastically participated. SMIU Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh said the key purpose of the festival was to familiarise the youth with new ideas that could help them succeed in their future life. He said the festival was organised on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Pakistan’s independence and the new generation would have to play their positive role to make the country a modern nation in the world. A report about the details of the events held during the four days of the festival was also presented. Before the conclusion of the festival, interesting and thought-provoking sessions were held, of which ‘development of Karachi as a megacity of Sindh’ stood out in particular. Eminent development experts Arif Hasan and Yasmin Lari took part in a session which revealed certain aspects that hindered the city from becoming “jewel of Pakistan”. Hasan said main hindrance in making Karachi a truly modern megacity was the fact that city’s matters were being controlled by the market and not politicians and bureaucracy. “The city’s important matters are being controlled by the market, while Lahore is developing because it is being controlled by politicians and bureaucracy, as it should be”. He said a comprehensive planning was highly needed to develop the metropolitan city. He said citizens of Karachi should come forward and own the city. Hasan said there were numerous reasons for the destruction of old heritage of Karachi. Among them, he said, the fact remained that some historical buildings and places were located in areas where it was hard to protect them. “Unless we get certain strong institutions to act, no positive change in the city is forthcoming. While, the institutions which we had in the past have already become history,” he said. He said there was no master plan offered by the Karachi Development Authority. Published in Daily Times, December 11th 2017.