LAHORE: “In 1901, the population of Lahore was 200,000 which doubled in 1930 and again doubled in 1950 making it 800,000. The alarms rang when it rose to 10 million and more in 2018 and is projected to touch 13 million mark in year 2030 – making it almost impossible to meet even the basic needs of the population of the city. The beauty and grandeur of this thousands of year old city has been affected by the ruthless and unplanned growth. Had we been planning accordingly, Lahore could have been a thriving metropolitan in many domains,” historian and writer Fakir Syed Ijazuddin said during a session on City Dialogue in Library organised by the Urban Unit. The session was the 14th of the series that brings multidimensional audience together under the Quaid-e-Azam Library roof from Lahore as well as many other cities. In his well knitted presentation, he shared some 100 years old images of important buildings in Lahore discussing how the deterioration took place having a negative impact on Lahore’s history too. Fakir Ijazuddin is an internationally recognised art historian and author of 18 books. Having served as Minister for Culture, Tourism & Environment, he is also a member of faculty at the Lahore University of Management Sciences and Forman Christian College University and is also feature writer a for well-reputed newspaper. Ijazuddin compared modern architecture and style with the contemporary one while focusing on the buildings in old Lahore that used to offer much public space for the residents as compared to recent times when congestion has become a permanent feature of the city. Earlier, at the 13th City Dialogue, former chief census commissioner Asif Bajwa spoke on the Population Census in Pakistan 2017 informing province-wise facts and data from the census and also focusing on the rural and urban statistics. “The government as well as CBOs as NGOs should have done some homework and analysis on census too figuring out as to how to meet the basic needs of the growing population – unfortunately there is no work done in this regard that leaves with major issues of unemployment and misguided and unguided youth misfit in their present job domains while trying to make both ends meet in Pakistan,” he lamented the fact that before and after the present census, no analysis or surveys were undertaken that could give planners a hint of the magnitude of problems faced by the citizens. A number of students from National College of Arts and the Punjab University, urban planners, architects, researchers, medical doctors, writers and academia took part in the dialogue. The City Dialogue has been rescheduled on every Friday in Quaid-e-Azam Library until May 1. Published in Daily Times, April 29th 2018.