Urbanisation has increased by 35 percent in Pakistan. More than half of the total urban population of the country lives in eight cities-Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Hyderabad, Gujranwala and Peshawar.
Sources in the UNFPA told Business Recorder here on Monday. Giving the details of urbanisation in different cities the source said that approximately three-quarter of the total urban population of Sindh is concentrated just three urban centers, Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur.
In Punjab, 22 percent of the urban population lives in Lahore and half of the total provincial urban population lives in five large cities. Peshawar has urban population of approximately one million excluding Afghan refugees which is 33 percent of the urban provincial population, they said.
The share of Quetta in the total urban provincial population is 37 percent. However, urban population was relatively more concentrated in Sindh mainly Karachi, they said.
The four provinces show crucial differences in the nature of urbanisation as more than 60 percent of the population of urban Sindh lives in Karachi and the pace of urbanisation is increasing gradually, they said. Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar are the cities where urbanisation rate is comparatively higher, they said.
These cities are considered as hub of social and economic activities and serve as destinations of rural migration too. Due to lack of facilities and job opportunities people of rural areas leave their places and move to urban areas.
They recommended that the government must improve the quality of life in rural areas other wise unprecedented urbanisation will deepen poverty as well as accelerate environmental degradation.
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