Abstract:
Pakistan is an urbanized society, spatially and materially. Urban modes of living have spread.
Globalization is further accelerating the urbanization of the society. While the society is being
strung into the urban modes of living, its beliefs, norms and values remain anchored in the agrarian
social order. This disparity has spawned wide ranging institutional lags. First; the non-material
norms are lagging behind material culture. Second, private interests overshadow the public space.
Third, the lived culture is not in sync with the imagined culture. These lags are impeding Pakistan’s
good governance and development.
Urbanization precipitates four sets of functional imperatives. It necessitates the provision of collective
goods and services. It requires redefining property rights. It calls for a moral order based on
impersonal mores and formal rules rather than customs. It lays the ground for communities of
interest and modernization of values and norms. These imperatives remain unfulfilled. Institutional
lags are structural manifestation of these unfulfilled imperatives. A strategy of deliberate urbanism
is recommended to overcome this condition.
