Pakistan, May 10 -- Across 52 cities of Punjab, the streets are finally beginning to tell a different story.

Roads that once crumbled under heavy traffic are being rebuilt. Decades-old drainage lines are being replaced. Sewerage systems are being modernized, public spaces restored and neglected neighborhoods brought back into the development map. Under the Punjab Development Plan, the provincial government has committed Rs.305 billion to what is rapidly becoming one of the largest urban renewal programmes in South Asia.

The ambition is not merely cosmetic. It is structural. And unlike many public-sector announcements in the south asian region, the machinery is already on the ground.

Nearly 40 percent of priority infrastructure work acr...