Growth strategy and cities

The growth strategy formulated by the Planning Commission focuses on rejuvenating our cities and communities in a manner that they can become engines of future economic growth. The military government in the past decade lost the golden opportunity of reforming urban areas and attracting human capital.
For example the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) never talked about how reforms for cities and commerce are dovetailed in order to bring inclusiveness in the urban areas. The PRSP never talked about the gains from density and high-rise in our cities. There was no action plan to address the zoning and building regulations that impede commerce. To take it further, most of the research done in PIDE on the reform of cities was used in the PRSP document without quoting any reference to the then Vice Chancellor of PIDE Dr Nadeem Ul Haque, who in fact brought to the attention of academia, the role of cities in economic growth and development.