KARACHI: A genuine change is not possible without an efficient local government system. Unfortunately, in the case of Karachi, the local government has been rendered powerless, remarked former federal information minister Javed Jabbar while delivering aspeechonFridayattheinauguralsession of a conference at NED University of Engineering and Technology.

Organised by the university`s department of architecture and planning at its city campus, the theme of the 3rd international conference on urban and regional planning is `Innovation in planning and practice`.

The programme began with a welcome address by Prof Anila Naeem, chairperson of the NED University`s architecture and planning department, in which she said that the initiative was a continuation of over 13 years of scholarly engagement on emerging issues, evolving concepts and new body of knowledge in the field of urban and regional planning.

She also highlighted the themes of the past conferences and informedthe audience about the scope of the current event.

Prof Sarosh Hashmat Lodi, the Vice Chancellor of NED University, underscored the need for a mechanism linking the universities with the industrial sector and the government and said that it was due to the absence of such a linkage that often research outcomes couldn`t benefit the society at large.

`Most researches have no impact.

It`s not that the research idea or the innovation was bad but because there is no mechanism to implement it,` he said, suggesting that the government should oversee whether industrieswere moving forward in the right direction and how could universities help them and contribute to the national economy.

His speech was followed by a presentation by Prof Noman Ahmed, the dean faculty of architecture and management sciences at NED, on a research paper authored by him and Fariha Tahseen, a lecturer at the university.

Titled `Examining mapping as an innovative tool for community empowerment in the context of unplanned settlements; a case of Karachi`, the paper investigates proliferation of informal settlements in Karachi, causes and process of peri-urban land invasion as well as the impacts and outcomes of unregulated urbanisation, affecting poor communities.

With the help of various slides, Prof Ahmed explained that process and agencies involved behind unplanned growth of informal settlements were the land brokers who illegally occupiedalargetractoflandinconnivance with government functionaries and other stakeholders.

The Orangi Pilot Project during identification of katchi abadis found a lot of work done by communities on sanitation and water supply through self-initiatives.

`It mapped more than half of peoples` settlements with proper details with the help of other organisations. The OPP under the leadership of its slain director Perween Rahman had a very important role in developing and extending this approach in low-income locations in Karachi and beyond,` he observed.

Under Perween Rahman`s leadership, the OPP documented 1,200 goths and identified their status of land. The work benefited many settlements including those in Baldia and Orangi as it helped make a strong case of poor communities` existence, he noted.

Mapping, he recommended, could be used as a documentation tool to generate factual evidences related to land ownership/utilisation status, state input related to land supply and other related matters. It`s a docu-ment of ownership.

He also shared examples including the case of Zobu Goth in Gadap and the more recent anti-encroachment drive around the Empress Market in which people lacking documentary evidence of their settlements were evicted.

Delivering the conference theme address titled `Exploring the virtual market for recycling` Dr Mansoor Ali, an NED alumnus and a visiting professor in the UK and Italy, shared findings of a research carried out by him and Sutima Paaopanchon.

The purpose of the research was to see whether a mobile application better connects demand and supply link to achieve high rates of recycling and explored the possibility of having a virtual market for recycling.

The researchfound highrecog-nition of the waste problem, though a negative perception about waste-related work as people considered it as a dirty business. It also saw high connectivity and acceptance for using the application.

During the panel discussion, Mukhtar Hussain and Khadija Jamal Shaban, both seasoned architects, gave their feedback on the presentations while participants raised questions mainly pertaining to the presentations.

Ms Shaban was of the opinion that an innovation in its true sense should impact humanity and the environment at large.

In his speech Javed Jabbar, the chief guest, agreed with the opinion shared during the discussion that there was a need to focus on the needs of differently abled people in urban design and planning.

He was of the opinion that dis-cussions at interactive forums had helped the government to form policies and enact laws.

He linked the conference theme to Pakistan`s creation and said the country`s main genesis was innovation as it was not only able to emerge on the world`s map in highly challenging circumstances but survived and progressed with hardly any resources.

While he regretted that the country couldn`t progress the way it should given the gains it made in initial years, Pakistanis had beenable toachieveexcellencein complex fields.

On the devolution of powers, he expressed his dismay at the fact that local government had been rendered powerless in the city and emphasised that `a genuine change could only come with an efficient local government system`