Pakistan has one of South Asia’s highest rates of urbanisation and is one of the world’s largest host countries for refugees, including an estimated 2.7 million Afghans. In recent years it has also seen increasing numbers of internally displaced people (IDPs) due to conflict and disasters, including 774,594 registered IDPs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) (UNHCR, 2012c). The population of Peshawar, the capital of KP province, has roughly doubled since 1998 to about 3.3m people,1 and it has become one of the largest recipient cities for refugees and IDPs in South Asia. It is also one of the poorest: an estimated 29% of KP’s population lives in poverty (UNDP, 2012). The government agencies charged with urban development have unclear mandates, inadequate resources and limited capacity to effectively manage Peshawar’s ongoing expansion. As the city has sprawled out beyond its originally intended limits, the state has not extended basic services and infrastructure accordingly.
URL : https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/8389.pdf