Pakistan is experiencing an unprecedented urban housing crisis (Jahangir 2018). According to the 2017 census its population of 207.7 million has grown by 2.4 percent per year in the intercensal period (Government of Pakistan 2017). Its urban population, on the other hand, has grown by 2.7 percent per year during the same period and is now estimated at 75.5 million (ibid).

According to the census, urban housing demand in Pakistan is 350,000 units. Of this, 62 percent is for lower-income groups, 25 percent for lower-middle-income groups, and 10 percent for higher and upper-middle-income groups. The formal supply per year is 150,000 units. The unmet demand is taken care of by two types of informal settlements: the occupation and subdivision of government land (katchi abadis) and the informal subdivision of agricultural land (ISALs) on the periphery of urban settlements. In the last two decades, however, the demand is increasingly being met by the densification of existing low and lower-middle-income settlements.