Ministry of Climate Change and UN Habitat launched The State of Pakistani Cities Report 2018 with the support of Australian government. Federal Minister for Climate Change Muhammad Yousaf Sheikh said while addressing the guests that adapting to climate change is the need of hour and developing climate resilient cities and infrastructure is imperative. He further said that the findings of the state of Pakistani Cities report reveal that the delivery of basic urban infrastructure and utilities are not able to keep pace with rapid urbanization. It is also evident that the environment is degrading, and urban chaos is adding to he challenges of managing urbanization. He further highlighted that Pakistani cities need to better plan and manages their development to overcome the urban challenges and to meet the demands of the citizen and indeed of the country. He also stressed upon that prosper cities need to be more responsive to environment and adopt technologies and economies that are less wasteful. The government of Pakistan, considering that emerging urbanization challenges reiterates its commitment towards planning and implementing pragmatic and reflect the ground realities across the country. He also said that rapid urban population increase will surpass rural population by 2030.He also said that vision 2025 seeks to have smart cities in Pakistan and well connected. Federal Minister for Finance Dr. Shamshad also addressed the participants and said that growth in urbanization is due to many factors including internal migration, influx of refugees, natural disasters, economic disparities in rural areas, decline in agricultural sectors. She further said that there are number of challenges that includes waste management, carbon emission, lack of civic sense. We need to work on mainstreaming, equity, inclusiveness should be main principles for urbanization. She also said China Pakistan Economic Corridor will help to link cities and municipalities. Her Excellency Margaret Adamson Australian High Commissioner to Pakistan said its a timely initiative for sustainable cities. She appreciated many policy initiatives taken by government of Pakistan including Vision 2025 and Water Policies. Mr. Neil Buhne UN Resident Coordinator, Pakistan appreciated the efforts of all provinces, government and private sectors. He also highlighted challenges faced by urban population access to social services, plastic pollution, unemployment and crime and insecurity. Mr. Babar Mumtaz Senior Urban Expert and Lead Author of “State of Pakistani Cities” highlighted process and main features of the report. The State of Pakistani Cities Report is spearheaded by the United Nations Human Settlement Program (UN Habitat) funded by Australian government. The State of Pakistani Cities (SPC) is a pivotal document in the ten largest cities namely Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Peshawar, Multan, Hydrabad, Islamabad and Quetta and their efficacy to respond to the urbanization challenges. The findings of the study reveal that the ten selected cities make up more than half of the total urban population, accounting for 54% of the national urban population. Pakistani cities vary in terms of their size of economy, employment and tax revenues. Services and industry are the major employment sectors in Pakistan. The share of of the services economy in the cities is larger than the share of services in the national economy. Pakistan generates 95% of its total federal tax revenue from its ten major cities and Karachi contributes 55%, Islamabad 16 percent and Lahore 15 %. The average urban per capita income in Pakistan among ten cities varies from PKR37000- PKR 70000.Poverty in urban areas is a major and visible phenomenon. Six out of ten major cities have double digit poverty figures: Quetta with 46%, has the highest poverty rate while Islamabad with 3% has the lowest poverty rate. *-*-*-*
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