City of Streams

There is just one city, Islamabad, that is a city of natural streams, flowing out of perennial and seasonal springs of the Margalla hills. Just stepping onto the trails from any part of the hills, one can notice pure water gurgling over the boulders and rough stones. These beautiful streams in hundreds have sustained wildlife for thousands of years. Those of us who are fortunate to have seen Islamabad in the early years, myself in the early 1970s, have a good memory of natural streams full of clear as crystal water flowing through the settled areas of the then beautiful city. Sadly, we don’t see them anymore in the same natural state.
The city or urban life has produced culture, knowledge, science, technology and everything that is part of civilisation. The best, liveable countries around the world are known and admired for many things that they have done for their citizens and humanity at large. The centrepiece of their success is that they have made city life comfortable and enjoyable. City leaders constantly think of parks and trees and try to preserve what is natural along with creating a balance between natural resources and development. Our country and we, unfortunately, cannot compare with any other country in the world for the low levels that we have touched in every aspect of life from material to spiritual.
Sadly, we can mourn the slow death of every city of Pakistan from Karachi to Peshawar. Rapacious politicians, bureaucrats, mafias, gangs, encroachers and greedy developers have destroyed our cities by turning the law on its head. In this piece, I just confine to mourning the slow death of the capital, Islamabad. Any nation would have been very proud of the natural endowment of Islamabad — green hills, natural streams, good quality of soil and the variety of trees and flowers that one can grow. Had this city been in a better-governed state and a more civilised society, we would have seen cafes, parks, bicycle tracks, walking and jogging trails and