Emerging Challenges in Land use Regulation System of Murree, Pakistan

Abstract

Most of the cities of Pakistan have expanded arbitrarily. Among these cities several had some sort of development plans, to guide the city’s growth. Due to one reason or another the city development did not take shape as per its plans. However, development projects as per these plans were randomly taken up by Authorities, which can be termed as partial implementation of Plans. The projects that were implemented in such manner were mostly preferred projects of Provincial Government, rather than prioritized or consented by local people or even Local Government. Consequently, these projects provided temporary relief for some specific problem of that city, but at the same time triggered numerous interrelated issues for which local authorities were not prepared. A need is being felt for plan oriented development rather than project oriented development, for which lot is desired in policy & strategy formulation, institutional strengthening and implementation. Murree City has developed without any development plan. The land use expansion of Murree has been dictated by the land ownership pattern and tendency of commercialization to tap the tourism potential of the city. As a result Murree is a city with almost no city specific statutory framework to guide its development, with land use issues, institutional capacity, proper distribution of functions, political interference and nonexistence of any roadmap for development, as its main land use regulation challenges. The aim of study is to analyze these areas and provide some suggestion that could assist in improvement of the overall land use regulation system and land use of the city. This research has been a mix method research. It is descriptive and exploratory research both. The methodology of research was two folds. At first stage review of policies xiii and strategies related to Murree in particular and to land use planning in general was done. This review was mostly from secondary data sources collected from various departments, organizations and internet sources. The document that were reviewed most dominantly included Master Plans of Murree 1988-2013 and Master Plan 2013-2016, Model Building Bye Laws and Zoning Regulations 2007, GoPb., The Punjab Private Housing Schemes and Land Subdivision Rules 2010, Punjab Land Use (Classification, Reclassification and Redevelopment) Rules 2009, Punjab Local Government (Commercialization) Rules, 2004, National Reference Manual (NRM) on Planning and Infrastructure Standards – Ministry of Environment and Urban Affairs Division, Government of Pakistan and Seismic Hazard Micro-zonation of Murree (June 2013), NDMA. Second stage of research included study of existing Land Use and land use regulation system of Murree Town. This part of research was done mostly through primary sources. The parameters used to study to existing land use of city included location of land uses, hierarchy of various land uses and allocation of area or number of any specific level of particular to land use. The review done through plan and field survey was validated through opinion of local residents & tourists to know their perception regarding location and sufficiency of various land uses. In this regard fifty structured interviews were conducted from local residents and same number of tourists were interviewed. To know about the land use regulation system of Murree town and record opinion of development agencies officials related to Murree, twenty officials from various departments and organizations were interviewed. Without guidance of an overall plan the town kept on expanding along roads, without any strategy or control. This not only contributed to urban sprawl, it also made the xiv city to lose its balance related to distribution of amenities. All facilities were concentrated in the central city with hinterland deprived of the same. So the main land use challenges of Murree include parking, middle and lower level amenities, environmental degradation, uncontrolled change of use of land, land speculation, development in disaster prone areas, no preservation strategy for heritage and urban sprawl. It is high time that some revolutionary steps should be taken to prepare and notify an overall development plan for Murree and supplement it with various action plans. Moreover, it is essential that Authorities should start looking at Murree as town and tehsil headquarter, besides its recognized role of a tourism hub. If this can be achieved through required contribution of all stakeholders, it will start reducing pressure on Murree central town and at the same time provide relief to the population living in the environs of Murree town, deprived of even basic necessities of urban life.