Islamabad and the Politics of International Development in Pakistan

334 Pages·2015·6.93 MB·English

by  Markus Daechsel

Islamabad and the Politics of International
Development in Pakistan
This is a highly original account of the design and development of
Pakistan’s capital city: one of the most iconic and ambitious urban
reconstruction projects of the twentieth century. Balancing archival
research with fresh, theoretical insights, Markus Daechsel surveys the
successes and failures of Greek urbanist Constantinos A. Doxiadis’s
most ambitious endeavour, Islamabad, analysing how the project not
only changed the international order, but also the way in which the
Pakistani state operated in the 1950s and 1960s. In dissecting Doxia-
dis’sfraughtrelationshipwithPakistanipolicymakers,bureaucratsand
ordinarycitizens,thebookoffersanunprecedentedaccountofIslama-
bad’s place in post-war international development. Daechsel provides
newinsightsintothisperiodandexploresthehistoryofdevelopmentas
a charged, transnational encounter between foreign consultants and
donorsontheoneside,andthepost-colonialnationstateontheother.
markus daechsel isSeniorLecturerinModernSouthAsianHistory
atRoyalHolloway,UniversityofLondon.

Islamabad and the Politics
of International Development
in Pakistan
Markus Daechsel
UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
education,learningandresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107057173
©MarkusDaechsel2015
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2015
PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
Daechsel,Markus.
IslamabadandthepoliticsofinternationaldevelopmentinPakistan/Markus
Daechsel.
pages cm.– (Studiesininternationalplanninghistory)
Includesbibliographicalreferences.
ISBN978-1-107-05717-3(Hardback)
1. Cityplanning–Politicalaspects–Pakistan–Islamabad. 2. Economic
development–Politicalaspects–Pakistan. 3. Economicassistance–Political
aspects–Pakistan. 4. Islamabad(Pakistan)–History–20thcentury.- I. Title.
HT169.P32I8153 2015
307.1021609549149–dc23 2014039490
ISBN978-1-107-05717-3Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof
URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication,
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
Contents
List of figures page vi
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
1 Architect ofdevelopment 31
2 Theconsultant’s gaze 67
3 From ‘great plan’to great project 106
4 On the road to Islamabad 148
5 Planning the Muslim city of the future 193
6 Theconsultant under attack 243
Conclusion 289
Bibliography 300
Index 313
v
Figures
1 Iraq housingprogram. page43
2 Doxiadis at his desk in his office at DAheadquarters,Athens. 44
3 Aerialtopography sketched and interpreted byDoxiadis. 89
4 Aerialsurveying –photograph taken on acommercial flight
over East Pakistan. 90
5 Doxiadis captures thecrowds awaiting his arrival by
amphibious biplane in Rajshahi, East Pakistan. 91
6 Street viewof the WalledCity ofLahore, West Pakistan,
autumn 1954. 94
7 Photograph taken during one ofDoxiadis’s surveys of
vernacular building styles in Rajshahi,East Pakistan. 95
8 Rapid surveying – snapshotof mud houses in south-western
Punjab. 96
9 Ministerfor RefugeeRehabilitation (and later Governor
of East Pakistan), General Azam Khan, meets Doxiadis
at DA headquarters in Athens in June 1959. 166
10 Doxiadis presents aspects ofhis masterplanfor Islamabad
to the Capital Development Authority, Rawalpindi, in
May 1961. 168
11 Doxiadis with the chairman ofthe Federal Capital
Commission (andPakistan’sfuture president),
General Yahya Khan. Rawalpindi,February 1960. 169
12 &13 Thedrama ofdevelopment exemplified – DApublicity
materialdepicting chaotic housingconditions in the Karachi
slums cleared bytheAyub Khan regime in late 1958 and
1959 and the new township ofKorangi designed by
Doxiadis to resettle their inhabitants. 171
14 Doxiadis’ssurveyparty inspects amud construction in
central Punjab. 209
15 DA publicity material representing the historical inspirations
for Doxiadis’s new Punjab University campus,Lahore. 212
vi
Listoffigures vii
16 Modelprojection oftheIslamabad Master Planbased on
Doxiadis’s‘dynapolis’concept. 217
17 Doxiadis’sdistinctive model ofahierarchy of communities. 218
18 Aresidential street in one ofthe subsectors withsome
survivinglow-cost housing designed byDoxiadis duringthe
first phaseofIslamabad’screation. 219
19 Doxiadis’sdesign for the cheapest housingunits in Korangi. 221
20 Doxiadis’ssketch explainingthe ‘dynapolis’principle. 226
21 Designs for culturally sensitive cookingfacilities for ordinary
Pakistanis, as DA engineers saw them. 229
22 Sketch ofDoxiadis’s cherished tea house design for Korangi. 231
23 The Korangi tea house. 233
24 Islamabad’s ‘covered market’awaiting final demolition after
years ofneglect. 234
25 DA fieldengineer and Karachi Improvement Trust official
in conversation with alocal resident ofKorangi. 249
26 Doxiadis’sdesign for aKorangi neighbourhood mosque
based on scientificprinciples. 283
Acknowledgements
This book has been long in the making, and it is impossible to mention
everybody who has helped tomakeit possible either in aprofessional or
personal capacity.
However,I would like to record my specificthanks to the following:
Alexandros Kyrtsis, who started it all when out of the blue he invited
me to speak at the C. A. Doxiadis conference in Athens in December
2006, and opened my way into the Doxiadis Archive, not to mention
offeringmehishospitalityandexpertadviceonnumerousmattersrelat-
ing to this book. Avery big ‘thankyou’also toGiota Pavlidou, librarian
and archivist at the Doxiadis Archive, who in her capacity has quite
simplybeenthebestprofessionalhelpanyhistoriancouldeverhopefor.
InPakistan,FatimaKanizYusuf,RafayAlam, SayidQaziandfamily,
Kamil Khan Mumtaz (andmany others) for sharing their expertise with
me.Likewise thestaffoftheNationalDocumentation Centre andCDA
Library, Islamabad, for theirunfailing professionalism.
Everyone who was available for an oral history interview (see list in
Bibliography). Gustav Papanek, Doxiadis’scontemporaryin Pakistanin
the 1950s, for responding to an e-mail enquiry about Doxiadis.
Academic colleagues past and present: Crispin Bates, Paul Nugent,
Gajendra Singh, Ashok Malhotra in Edinburgh; Sarah and Humayun
Ansari, Dan Haines, Elisabeth Leake, Ali Usman Qasmi, Sandra Hal-
perin at Royal Holloway; elsewhere and through many workshops and
conferences: Stephen Legg, Matthew Hull, Stephan Miescher, Will
Gould, Ravi Ahuja, Henrike Donner, David Arnold, David Hardiman,
Prashant Kidambi, Projit Mukherjee, Jahnavi Phalkey and many others
for comments and inspiration along the way. Francis Robinson, Florian
Schui and Julia Gallagher for readingparts of the draft.
The Carnegie Endowment for Scottish Universities and the British
Academy for awarding me for this project funding as part of the Small
Research Grant scheme.
Theanonymousreadersofthemanuscript(aswellasoftheassociated
articles listed in the Bibliography). Marigold Acland, Lucy Rhymer and
viii