How Planning Creates the Unplannable: The Case of the Katchi Abadis (Impermanent Settlements) of Lahore Mina Rafael Arif A Major Paper submitted to the Faculty of Environmental Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Environmental Studies York University Toronto, Ontario, Canada, November 30, 2015 ___________________________ Mina Rafael Arif, MES Candidate ____________________________ Dr. Stefan Kipfer, Major Paper Supervisor Abstract This research delves into the role of planning in the Global South with respect to informal settlements. Using a case study of the informal settlements in Lahore, Pakistan, it evaluates the current planning process as a subset of the state- bureaucratic-developer nexus that dominates political structures of postcolonial cities. In an era where socio-spatial politics are increasingly determined by the edicts of neoliberalism and urbanism is defined by the circuits of capital accumulation, planning institutions too form a part of the political power matrix. This research evaluates whether planning as an institution is complicit in the formation and perpetuation of informal settlements in the cities of the Global South. To that end this research highlights the informality of the state apparatus itself which subverts planning paradigms in practices of deregulation, exceptionalism and patronage to profit from the neoliberal financialization of land. It discusses how the multi-planar socio-spatial synergies of the city are reduced to binaries of informal-formal, order-disorder, legal-illegal, to reengineer the urban and rural landscape according to the edicts of global capital. This culminates in violent dispossession, segregation and peripheralization of the poor, complemented by a politics of patronage and common sense used by the state-apparatus to legitimize coercion and violence in the hegemonic administration of space. ii Dedication For my Grandmother, who prayed for the oppressed of our country in every prayer. May she rest in peace. And for Zara, my little herald of brighter dawns, may you inherit your homeland in full bloom. In the name of this day And In the name of the anguish of this day For this wilderness of yellowing leaves that is my homeland For this carnival of suffering Let me write of the lives of office workers Of the railway men And the tonga wallahs And of the postmen And those toiling in factories Let me write of those they call- workers Lord of the world Promised heir to all that is come Let me write of the farmer This lord whose fief was a few animals-stolen This heir whoonce had a daughter-carried off Who has lost, from his hand’s breadth of land, One finger to the record keeper And another to the government as tax, This chief whose turban is a tattered rag Beneath the feet of the mighty Let me write of the Mothers Whose children cry out in the night And cradled, in tired defeated arms will not tell their woes Let me write of the widows Let me write of neighbourhoods Whose scattered garbage the moon Blesses every night, And from whose shadows cries out Let me write of the little houses The narrow lanes and the courtyards Where the earth is so unclean, where the shadows are so deep That all life ebbs away like a sob, unheeded Let me write of the students Those seekers of truth Who came seeking truth at the doorstep Of the great and the mighty These innocents who, with their dim flickering lamps Came seeking light Where they sell naught but darkness of long endless nights Let me write of the Heralds of the coming dawn Those harbingers of the days to come Who, like the flower with its scent, Have become enraptured of their own message Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Intesaab iii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my Advisor, Professor Ilan Kapoor and of course my Supervisor, Professor Stefan Kipfer for their expertise, guidance and invaluable insight. Professor Kapoor’s life changing course Critical Theories on International Development brought my inchoate ideas into sharp focus and his advice has been instrumental in giving me the confidence to think independently. Professor Kipfer’s limitless knowledge and insight has been invaluable through the course of this research paper. His expertise (an inexhaustible archive) has has reinforced this research at every juncture. Moreover, I am extremely grateful to them both for their patience and understanding of the limitations of my schedule as a new mother. Their kind indulgence has been the main reason I have been able to tend to my family and do my research work at the same time. This research would not have been possible without the unconditional love and support of my four parents; my loving Ma and Baba, whose love, unfaltering support and constant encouragement guides me every step of the way and without whom this would not have been possible and my pyarey Ami and Abu, who built me up from scratch, sacrificing everything and more for us. For my husband Salman, my voice of reason in every trying time, for his support, patience and constant encouragement. Thank you for giving me the confidence and the freedom to make my own choices, for never holding me back from my dreams and ambitions, for holding down the fort while I was working, for making it through dirty diapers, over-salted, half-burnt dinners and frozen pizzas without complaint and for being my sounding board and my rock. A special thank you to my amazing brothers and wonderful sister, Adil, Usman Bhai and Nina Apa, for always sharing in my happiness and my troubles. For that I am eternally grateful. I am also extremely grateful to my friends, Sana (my person), Meeha, Neetu and Ayaz, for their invaluable insight, support and encouragement. And for the occasional emotional meltdown over mugs of chai. Most importantly, I am exceedingly beholden and extremely grateful to all the residents of the Lahore katchi abadis who welcomed me into their homes, sat with me on roadsides, forgave my ignorance, indulged my voracious questions, had chai with me and let me into their lives. I am equally beholden to all the planners and government officials who accommodated me and were so kind as to answer all my imposing questions in such great detail. iv Glossary Biraderi a clan system based on patrilineal links to a common ancestor CDA Capital Development authority DA Development Authority FATA federally administered area GDP Gross Domestic Product GoP Government of Pakistan Gully alley ILMP Integrated Lahore Master Plan IMF International Monitory Fund ISAL illegally subdivided land KDA Karachi Development Authority KP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Kami agricultural tenant/servant Katchi Abadi informal settlement Khoka small one-window tea shop LDA Lahore Development Authority LESCO Lahore Electric Supply Company LIT Lahore Improvement Trust MNAs, Minister of Nation Assembly MPAs, Minister of Provincial Assembly Malikana Haqooq property rights Mazdoor laborer Mohalla neighborhood Nazims Mayors NESPAK National Engineering Services Pakistan NGO/CBO Non-Government Body, Community Based Organization Pucca permanent (construction/housing) Raj colonial rulers in India Rairiwala hawker Registries written decree of property SAPs Structural Adjustment Programs SDI Shack/Slum Dwellers International Sui Gas Gas Supply company Pakistan TEPA Traffic Engineering Planning Agency UN United Nations WASA Water and Sanitation Agency WB World Bank WTO World Trade Organization Zamindar landlord v Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................ ii Dedication ................................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................... iv Glossary ........................................................................................................................................................v Foreword .......................................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1. Introduction ..............................................................................................................................3 Research Design and Methodology .......................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 2. Placing The Lumpen and Informality ..................................................................................12 The Role of Planning in Informality ...................................................................................................... 27 Chapter 3. Informality and planning in Pakistan ...................................................................................31 Exclusionary Planning: A Colonial Legacy ........................................................................................... 38 A People Dispossessed ........................................................................................................................... 44 Neoliberalism and Accumulation by Dispossession in the Post- Independence state ............................ 47 Chapter 4. The State-Military-Bureaucratic Oligarchy and Cooption of planning ............................56 The Bureaucracy ...................................................................................................................................