Capital cities are judged more harshly than other cities because they are expected to display the state at its most competent. In Pakistan, this has become even more pronounced since the 18th Amendment, as provincial governments have used visible investment in capital cities to signal performance. Peshawar, however, has not benefited in the same sustained way.

I was born in and grew up in Peshawar. I studied here until 12th grade and grew up in its by-lanes, schools, colleges, and public areas. I shared the social life and daily rhythms of the city during my childhood and adolescence before the signs of decay and dilapidation set in the urban fabric. I have known the city when it was far more functional and habitable, and I have never been so disheartened – so disassociated with my physical surroundings – as I am now, confronted with the rot in its infrastructural fabric, the visual chaos, and the gradual loss of urban dignity.

Lahore has long received more sustained political and development attention than the other provincial capitals. The result is visible in its infrastructure, urban management, and public presentation. That concentration has also come at the expense of other cities in Punjab. This has produced a deeply uneven pattern of urban development within Punjab and beyond.

The exact opposite is the case with Peshawar, which, as the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is also one of the most underdeveloped large cities in the country, despite its history, strategic importance, and rich cultural heritage. Peshawar's status as a capital has not ensured continuous and substantive investment in the development of the city or the institutional capacity of the state.

Symptoms of this inattention have included crumbling infrastructure, weak municipal service delivery, endemic traffic snarls, uncontrolled sprawl, and a dearth of economic opportunity. There have been some welcome forays by the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, particularly in health through the Sehat Card scheme, in hospital infrastructure, and the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, which has ameliorated mobility for some segments of the urban population.

But these improvements in the delivery of services in specific sectors have not been transformational in terms of the urban experience. The city infrastructure has continued to be poorly maintained and, for the most part, unattractive. Neglected public spaces and municipal services struggle to cope.

The party is winning in KP because of less of PTI’s claimed good governance and more because Imran Khan is a charismatic populist figure in the eyes of the voters

The party is winning in KP because of less of PTI’s claimed good governance and more because Imran Khan is a charismatic populist figure in the eyes of the voters

The recent deterioration of the urban environment, with air pollution as the most visible symptom of a provincial capital city, has been another by-product of the urban malaise in Peshawar. Rising vehicle emissions, construction outside of regulatory frameworks, and the lack of environmental governance have made air pollution an everyday public health hazard.

The failure is not due to the absence of plans. Peshawar has had plans for decades, including the 1987 Structure Plan, but they were not followed through. What has been missing is continuity: sustained funding, administrative commitment, and a long view of urban growth.

As a result, even as there are islands of notable success in the city with regard to improving service delivery, the city as a whole remains on the economic margins, with a majority of its residents poor and with access to only limited, often unreliable, low-quality public services. The situation is made all the more complex by the Afghan refugees who have been in and around the city for the last quarter-century, first arriving in 1979.

On the one hand, the city has exhibited an impressive degree of social resilience. On the other hand, this additional population has placed long-term stress on local housing, health, education, and municipal services. And despite several decades of assistance, the burden has remained heavily dependent on local institutions that were never robust enough to shoulder it. Peshawar's problems have also been compounded by its frontline status in the war on terror.

The city absorbed millions of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), experienced repeated major terrorist attacks, and weathered many years of severe economic dislocation. Despite all this, reconstruction assistance to the city remained limited, and, in the end, Pakistan's political leadership did not secure a commensurate framework for recovery.

This is, above all, a question of provincial political priorities. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, districts associated with the chief ministers have often received disproportionate development attention. Peshawar, despite being the provincial capital, was never treated as the central political project of the province.

This privilege was not limited to setting up a new local government system and a provincial capital. This lack of care for a ‘citizenship’ and representative voice became evident in the perennial short-changing of local governments, which are structurally designed to be dependent on the whims and fancies of the provincial government in question and are denied enough fiscal space to provide even basic urban services to residents.

Without visible improvements in urban conditions, the party will begin to lose its electoral legitimacy among an increasingly urban and service-conscious electorate long before the next provincial elections

Without visible improvements in urban conditions, the party will begin to lose its electoral legitimacy among an increasingly urban and service-conscious electorate long before the next provincial elections

It matters all the more because PTI has won both provincial elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2013 and 2018. It is a popular take that PTI is being rewarded by the voters for a governance dividend, but Peshawar’s state of affairs should give us pause. The party is winning in KP because of less of PTI’s claimed good governance and more because Imran Khan is a charismatic populist figure in the eyes of the voters. The electoral returns in KP continue to be without any material returns in Peshawar.

A comparison to Lahore is therefore useful. In Lahore, the PML-N government massively scaled up investment, particularly in infrastructure development, positioning the city as the political and economic core of the province. The resulting development model has been rightfully critiqued, particularly for its reinforcement of intra-provincial imbalances, but it at least showcases what the prioritisation of a city within the political arena can do in material terms. The case of Peshawar, then, is less one of a dearth of resources and more of political decision-making over where resources are allocated and, importantly, where they are not.

Peshawar will not recover through symbolic projects alone. It needs sustained funding, municipal authority, and a coherent long-term plan. The first step must be equitable resource distribution: Peshawar must be allocated a fair share of both provincial and federal resources based on a transparent set of criteria, including population increases, additional infrastructure burden, service-delivery gaps, and the city’s unique role as a host for displaced communities. Until there are reliable flows of funds, municipal planning will continue to be cosmetic and reactive.

Fiscal prudence has to begin to show on the ground in the form of visible improvements in core infrastructure. All of Peshawar’s core infrastructure networks – roads and public transport, drainage and water supply, sanitation, and solid-waste management – have suffered from a lack of sustained investment, and suffered even more from the city’s reliance on temporary, stop-gap projects in the past. Urban infrastructure is not just about beautification.

The lack of urban infrastructure is a health issue, an issue of labour productivity and school attendance, and an issue of private investment and entrepreneurship. You cannot be on a path of development if you cannot provide your city with basic management of water, sanitation, and mobility.

At the same time, the city also needs a strategy to start shifting from a chronic over-reliance on services of limited productivity and the brittle security economy. The tourism sector, based on the city’s history and culture and as a gateway to the region, can be revived with better urban management, public space, and credible hotels and hospitality infrastructure.

IT and other services can start to provide productive pathways for young people if there is focused support for that industry, digital skills development and literacy, and reliable connectivity. Agro-processing and value-chain development can also provide jobs if linked to the wider provincial economy and connecting peri-urban and rural producers to urban markets.

To this end, social development has to be seen as the centrepiece of this agenda. The upgrade of schools, colleges, universities, and hospitals is not only a welfare issue: it is an economic necessity. Human capital is what decides if a city can adjust to technological disruptions and become competitive for investment. Peshawar’s public sector institutions need to be expanded in both numbers and quality (trained staff, functional equipment, reliable medicines, and so on, along with mechanisms for accountability), so that people are not pushed into expensive private substitutes.

External support can help, but only if city institutions can direct it and account for it properly. Coordination with UNHCR will be at the centre of refugee-focused assistance, particularly in channelling support to both refugees and host communities for health, education, shelter, and protection.

Beyond this humanitarian corridor, development partners such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), USAID, and others could support long-term projects that municipal budgets will not be able to cover – in particular, infrastructure, urban resilience, and local economic development. In parallel, there will continue to be a need for targeted humanitarian assistance, particularly for displaced persons and other vulnerable segments with an urgent need.

A provincial capital is the most visible test of a government’s capacity to govern. When its roads, public spaces, and services visibly deteriorate, that failure is plain to residents and politically costly. At a minimum, the people of Peshawar deserve better than empty symbolic politics and ad hoc projects. Unless there is a real shift away from personality-driven rule towards stronger institutions, transparent finances, and consistent urban planning, the city will remain trapped in political patronage rather than democratic governance.

For PTI, the sustained neglect of the provincial capital also comes with a high political price: without visible improvements in urban conditions, the party will begin to lose its electoral legitimacy among an increasingly urban and service-conscious electorate long before the next provincial elections.

© The Friday Times