Pakistan is facing a dual burden of rapid urbanisation and increasing climate vulnerability, with low-income and marginalised communities bearing the greatest impact. In this episode, Hina Shaikh and Nausheen Anwar discuss the lived realities and politics of urban transformation in Pakistan’s cities. They unpack the complex relationship between urban development and climate challenges, examining how issues such as air pollution, urban flooding and heatwaves manifest differently across cities, shaped by each city’s unique geography, infrastructure, and inequalities.
Hina Shaikh is a senior country economist at IGC and has over 20 years of experience in the development sector. She has worked with leading international NGOs and multilateral organisations like the World Bank and United Nations Development Program. Her research interests include sustainable development, climate change, inclusive growth and the political economy of policy making.
Dr Nausheen Anwar is a fellow of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in the Cities Cluster and professor of City and Regional Planning at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA). She is also the founder and director of the Karachi Urban Lab (KUL). Her research interests include urban planning, urban studies, geography. anthropology, political ecology.