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What can Pakistan Learn from China’s “Safe Cities” Projects

Pakistan has been grappling with urban challenges, including rising crime rates, environmental degradation, and governance deficiencies. This precarious situation calls for data-driven governance and increased private sector engagement to address these issues and unlock the urban centers' growth potential.

As the population of Pakistan surpasses 230 million, it brings significant policy-related challenges associated with precipitous urbanisation, rapid environmental degradation, and diminishing administrative control over major urban centres. These metropolitan areas have become a locus for a spectrum of illicit activities, encompassing acts of terrorism, robberies, drug-related offences, extortion, and prostitution, among others.

Due to a lack of workforce and outdated methodologies, the local administrationstruggles to maintain law and order in major urban centres. This creates serious hurdles in the dispensation of effective service to citizens. The lack of any centralised monitoring system delays the response to emergencies that tend to blow into a full-scale crisis.

Lawlessness not only endangers citizens’ lives but also any rewarding business activities, and existing businesses start moving out. So, an intended inflow of capital leads to an unwanted outflow. This exacerbates the economic situation as less business activity means less employment and directly correlates to increased criminal activities and social unrest.

Pakistan inherently had a rural economy that relied primarily , through the decades, on agriculture. Successive governments through the decades have failed to uplift living standards in rural areas. This situation has worsened by the deteriorating law and order situation in Pakistan’s tribal belt in North West, Balochistan and South Punjab. Such socio-economic factors push people to move towards urban centres that are already struggling with the shortages of the existing population. Cities like Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Faisalabad and Peshawar have witnessed worsening climatic patterns, resource shortage and rampant street crimes, all of which signify the plight of local administrations that lack the workforce and capabilities to monitor and respond.

Setting aside considerations related to population growth, a well-established urban centre inherently draws individuals due to the abundant opportunities it offers to the middle class. The aspiration for an enhanced lifestyle is contingent upon a robust security infrastructure.

China has experienced a gradual increase in urbanisation, propelled by advancements in its economic determinants in response to the demands for increased workforce and consumerism. The government has formulated plans to reconfigure its developmental outlook in alignment with its unprecedented economic growth. This involves relocating 250 million individuals from rural areas to urban centres by the year 2025, a strategic initiative aimed at further fostering economic development to beat par with growth levels.

In 2011, the central government of China initiated an extensive nationwide program mandating 650 Chinese cities to overhaul their public security and safety infrastructures by integrating cutting-edge technologies. These initiatives encompass the deploymedeployingeillance systems, specifically Closed-Circuit Television Systems (CCTVs), the training of officials in their utilisation, and the establishment of comprehensive data collection and analysis frameworks, including applications, operating systems, and models. The primary objective is to enhance security measures and derive valuable policy insights through the analysis of collected data.

This advanced infrastructure serves as a catalyst for investments in the security, digital technology, and construction sectors. Notably, China’s national safe city market is projected to attain a cumulative value of $138 billion from 2012 to 2022.

Pakistanoperationalisation,realisationapprehend cities like Multan, Bahawalpur, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Sargodha. While a promising start as equipment and technical experts from China assisted in installation of the system, it was Pakistan’s persistent governance lethargy that has become a hindrance in intended operationalization.  As the crime chart of urban centers did not come down this exposed the dismal state of monitoring of the new safe cities systems. The Islamabad Safe City Project, inaugurated in 2014 with an allocation of approximately 6 billion rupees, encountered significant challenges in its realization. Law enforcement authorities asserted that the surveillance cameras failed to result in the apprehension of any criminals, suspects, or proclaimed offenders, highlighting notable shortcomings in the project’s effectiveness.

The project also failed to assist the police in chasing and arresting culprits who escaped after criminal activities. There is no proper data backup for CCTV recordings, Furthermore, Islamabad’s safe cities authority has 72 staff members to monitor 70 screens.

Pakistan’s need to secure cities through such initiatives was primarily motivated by security concerns, especially in wake of War on Terror. foreign consulates. This approach, however, does not underpin the economic-driven need to have secure cities, neither the dispensation of public service norForeignthe dispensation of public service northe wake of the data collection to plan the future of its cities. Security-driven initiatives have a myopic approach to dealing with problems, which overlooks the civilian applications these projects might have.

Taking cue from China’s Huawei Safe Cities project, Pakistan can reap benefits not only in the economic sector but also the data collection can improve urban planning, traffic management, identifying dense areas, and ensuring government policies during emergencies (Pandemics, Terror alerts, Natural disasters) as well as preempt criminal and subversive activities. For this purpose, however, the traditional mindset prevailing in policy circles must recalibrate itself. It’s unlikely that Pakistan can afford a staggering workforce to monitor such a sophisticated system. In modern era, smart CCTV cameras, unmanned drone surveillance, Artificial intelligence and smart recognition systems are the key.

Integrating businesses and private partnerships in safe cities projects can not only localize the economic benefits but also attract international investment by digital giants as was the case with China’s safe cities markets (Cisco, IBM, Panasonic, Samsung Electronics).

Mega urban centres suffering from increasing crime waves, natural disasters and potential terror threats, all the while facing the brunt of demographic change, find both opportunities and solutions in a well-intended and planned operationalisationCities of Safe Cities projects that require a renewed purview of not only security but also how the treasure-trove of data can be used for good governance in terms of urban planning, employment and management. Suppose Pakistan’s urban management pundits can wield the multifaceted potential of a Safe city system. In that case, it can very much offer a framework to sort out a plethora of administrative cum economic issues that have marred the country’s growth potential. 

The writer is a graduate of International Relations, from National Defence University in Islamabad. His interests include Political discourse analysis, Foreign policy analysis, Global Terrorism, South Asian affairs, Pak-Afghan ties, Military and Strategic affairs. He can be reached at hammadwaleed82@gmail.com. 

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