Slum Architecture in Pakistan

Architectural History Of Pakistan

Presented to

AR Khalid Chauhan
Bahauddin Zakariya University
Multan College Of Arts

Prepared by
Saba gull
Roll no : #06
Bs Architecture
TH
8 Semester

January 3, 2024
.;
Abstracts
Slums, also known as Katchi Abaadis, are becoming more prevalent due to
overpopulation, urbanization, and lack of government intervention. These slums
are mostly inhabited by low-income families and marginalized communities. The
majority of residents in these areas do not possess basic facilities such as clean
drinking water or proper sanitation. A policy brief has been created to propose
best practices and solutions for improving the social, economic, and health
standards of these slums.

Slum
A Slums is predominantly an overcrowded area which is in an advanced stage
of decay where dwelling are unfit for human habitation.
It is like an area where the basic amenities like water supply, drainage, for
standard living are lacking, insanitary conditions prevail, and diseases flourish.
It is a poverty-stricken area, where there is a high rate of birth, infant mortality,
illegitimacy, juvenile crime, delinquency and death, thus representing a state of
hell on the surface of earth.

Causes Of Slum
• Poverty
• Absence of proper housing facilities
• Migration
 • Rapid raise of urban populations
• Carless and neglect of house owners
• High rental rate in the city
• Lack of cheap transport system
• Unplanned growth of cities
• The attraction of the city
• Negligence of govt. and municipality.

Decentralization - Rich and middle class people move out of the extended
portions of the town Poor people are left unattended in the overcrowded central
area of the town
Economic conditions - Unemployment, growth of population. poverty
Education - Easily dragged into social evil without any attention to
improvement of the living condition
Improper use of land - If the lands fit for particular use are utilized for
industries or vice versa the slums are formed.
Industrialization - No proper planning of houses of labor
Lack of zoning - If the town is not divided into the suitable zones and
development is allowed to take place at random, the slums may be created.
Migrants - The persons migrating from the surrounding areas may occupy,
usually illegally, the vacant or empty places in or out the city.
Powers of local authorities - If the local authority concerned does not
possess adequate powers to control the development of town, the slums may be
formed.
Lack of Repair and maintenance - If cheap houses constructed by the land
owner for the purpose of collecting rents are not properly maintained, then the
slums may forms.
Characteristics Of Slums
Appearance
The universal mark of the slum is its unpleasant appearance. The structures
appear to be deteriorated and to be over aged.
Fire hazards The slums area are often exposed to fire accidents and consequent
damages one stick of matches may prove to sufficient to reduce the whole slum
to ashes in no time.
Health and sanitation
The slum is characterized by low standard of sanitation and is often neglected
most by the public service for sanitation. Refers an area of high sickness and
Death rates.
Overcrowding
The slum is over crowded with buildings or the building are overcrowded with
people
Moral
The socially disorganized slum may prove to be an area of criminal behavior.
Income criteria
Poverty area and it is occupied by people of the lowest group of the society.
Social isolation
The slum area is of the lowest social status and it is usually linked up with the
rest of the community through its labor force.
Effects Of Slums
The effect of slums are summarized as below:
Absence of amenities: the surrounding area of slums is lacking in essential
amenities in required proportion because of over- crowding.
Health: the persons residing in slums are easily attacked by various types of
diseases. The climate of slums is such that it easily leads to unhealthy
conditions.
Surrounding locality: the working of institution like library, schools,
hospitals, etc located nearby slums, is seriously affected.
Undesirable spots
• The slums are such on a city plan forms undesirable spots and in a sense,
disturbs the appearance of a city plan.
• Working Conditions
• It is not possible to work peacefully in slums because the whole area is
full of noise, traffic congestion, smoke, dust and darkness.
• In short a slum as such forms a black spot and spoils the healthy
environment of the city as a whole
Types Of Slums
Notified Slum:
All notified areas in a town or city notified as ‘Slum’ by State, Local
Government under any Act including a ‘Slum Act’.
Recognized Slum:
All areas recognized as ‘Slum’ by State, Local Government, Housing and Slum
Boards, which may have not been formally notified as slum under any act.
Identified Slum:
A compact area of at least 300 population or about 60-70 households of poorly
built congested tenements, in unhygienic environment usually with inadequate
infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water facilitie.

Slum architecture in Pakistan

The Pakistan is very diverse in the sense that it has many people who are
leaving below the poverty line. Pakistan is a developing country.In my report I
focusd the condition of Pakistan in a katchi abadi point of view, Pakistan is
home to a significant proportion of the worlds poor. Almost a quarter of the
country’s 158 million people survive beneath a poverty line. When people
migrate to urban areas they don't have proper shelter to cover themselves and
theytry to have their own shelters and which result in formation of new
slum.When we took a glance on the history of Pakistan last twenty six years
from 1976,the total population increase has been 50.13%, whereas, the number
of householding these slum areas have risen by 35.68%, having a low trend
between 1986 and 2000.According to the survey , Lahore is in a need of 80,000
units per year but tonegative feature of the uncorroborated problem is that the
building permits is onlyto 27,000 annually. So people construct that takes place
in the city so called 'Katchi abadis’ that is also called slum of the city.

Famous slum in Pakistan

Punjab
According to Pakistan Economic Survey (2018-19), Punjab is the most
populous province of Pakistan and accounts for 110 Million of population for
the year 2017-18 . The second largest city of Pakistan, and the capital of Punjab
Lahore, has roughly 30% of the settlements as slums. The slums of Lahore are
home to an estimated population of 1.7 million people. The proportion of urban
slum population in Lahore has reached the upper limit threshold of the city’s
total population. It has a population density of 400 persons/km. In case of the
slums of Faisalabad, the number of slum-dwelling units ranges from 42 to
2,851. Lahore has approximately 308 informal settlements or slums. Faisalabad
ranks as the third most populous city of Pakistan and it is a home to 104 slums.

Sindh
Population Growth Sindh is situated in the southeast of the country and is one of
the four provinces of Pakistan. By area, it is the third largest province of the
country and is second largest in terms of population. Sindh is the most
urbanized province of Pakistan with around 52% population residing in the
urban areas. According to 2017 Census of Pakistan, the population of the Sindh
province is 47.89 million; whereas Karachi has a population of 14.9 million,
which is projected to increase to 18.7 million by. The population density for the
city of Karachi is approximately 6,000 people per square kilometer. In the year
2016, UN ranked Karachi as the 12th top megacity by size in the world, the
number which is expected to rise to 7 th by 2030. Hyderabad, on the other hand
is the fourth-largest city in Pakistan with the population of 1.73 million.
Hyderabad is the second most urbanized city of Sindh with around 80% of the
people living in the cities. Karachi and Hyderabad are key focus areas when it
comes to unplanned urbanization and are the home to around 1,300 slums.
About 70% of these slums are situated in 18 towns of Karachi, whereas, the
remaining 25-30% slums are located in four towns of Hyderabad . According to
a detailed study conducted on “Challenges and patterns of seeking primary
healthcare in slums of Karachi: A disaster lurking in urban shadows” it has been
highlighted that there are more than 600 slums in Karachi. Karachi is also a
home to the largest slum in Asia i.e. Orangi Town with the estimated population
of 2.4 Million.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Population Growth According to the 2017 Census of Pakistan, the population of
Peshawar is 1.97 million distributed into four towns, which are further
distributed into 79 Union Councils (UCs). With the highest annual growth rate
of 4% in the province, the city has seen a rapid increase in population, with
huge influx of Afghan refugees. According to estimates out of 80% of the
afghan refugees living in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 60% resides in Peshawar
valley). Displaced populations having low financial resources tend to settle in
and around the city in squatter settlements (Katchi Abadis). Besides Afghan
refugees being the main reason of slum formation in Peshawar, the floods of
2005 made 3.5 million homeless, causing destruction of more than 600,152
houses (United Nations Human Settlement Programme .A study identified 18
informal settlements in Peshawar city. It constitutes about 15% of the total
population of Peshawar with the estimated population of 250,00053, although
the actual number of people living in slums are higher than this 54 . As some of
the studies report that slums and squatter settlements almost constitute 50-60%
of the city.

Balochistan
Quetta is the largest City and the Provincial Capital of Balochistan, Pakistan.
The city shars its boundaries with Pishin district in the north, Ziarat in the East,
Mastung in the South and Afghanistan in the West. As per the National Census
of 2017, the population of Quetta City is One Million and the population of
Quetta District is Two Million. Quetta is the most urbanized city of Balochistan
and hosts 29% of all urban population of the province33. Though Balochistan is
the largest province by area, the population of the province is the lowest at 7.
Furthermore, about 17% of the population is living below poverty line in this
city. The literacy rate stands at 66% in Quetta city, however, there is a
noticeable difference between literacy rates, and female literacy stands at 836 .
The housing structures accommodating over 800,000 residents of Quetta lack
the facilities and infrastructure for adequate drainage and sanitation.
To assess the quality of consumable water, a study was conducted in 16
different locations of Quetta, which revealed high contamination in tap water
owed to the seepage and leakage of the water supply and sewer lines .
Furthermore, fecal contamination of drinking water is known to cause 30% of
all diseases .
The slum areas are highly populated with poor or no infrastructure.The slum
dwellers of Quetta lack accessibility to basic resources and are living far beyond
the standards laid down by the Sustainable Development Goals.

Islamabad
Islamabad is the Federal capital of Pakistan and is located within the Federal
Islamabad Capital Territory. According to World Population Review, the
population of Islamabad is 1,095,06460. The trend analysis for population
growth for the city reveals that by 2020, the city population will be almost 1.7
million and it is expected to exceed 2.2 million by the year 2030.

Famous Slum
• Orangi Town (Karachi
• Lyari (Karachi)
• Machar Colony (Karachi)
• Saddar (Rawalpindi)
• Sultanabad (Islamabad)
• Shahdara (Lahore )