Urban sustainability has become a significant challenge globally due to rapidly growing urbanization and industrialization. Hence, this study was conducted to examine the existing urban development trends of metropolitan cities (i.e., Beijing and Karachi) of China and Pakistan in the context of urban sustainability. The development progress in both cities was examined through urban sustainability indices individually and compared with each other. An index system considering 36 indicators was developed based on social, economic, and environmental aspects. The six years (2012–2017) of data used in this study, were obtained from various governmental websites. Furthermore, the Urban Sustainability Index (USI) was evaluated using the statistical standard equal-weighted method. Results revealed that Beijing’s developmental progress is much better than Karachi in terms of socio-economic and environmental development, but there is still a need for improvement. While Karachi faces problems in all three sectors, each indicator of these sectors requires considerable improvement for attaining the top level of the Urban Sustainability Index. However, this study recommends that much attention is needed in the case of Karachi city, whereas Beijing also needs quality advancement in urban development.

The aim of this study was to critically investigate the planning policy loopholes in five-year (7^th and 8^th) plans of Pakistan to develop agricultural-based industrial sectors in secondary cities of the Sindh Province, Pakistan. The study had conducted key informant interviews from agro-based industrial sectors to diagnose the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of the 7^th and 8^th five-year plans. For that purpose, the study had conducted 30 key informant interviews by using the purposive sampling technique. The NVIVO software was used with content analysis method to get results of SWOT of 7^th five-year (1988–1993) and 8^th five-year (1993–1998) plans. The results revealed that high priority is given to the textile and sugar industries. However, there is an absence of planning policies for small and medium agricultural industries in secondary cities, fiscal reliance on central government, and reliance on foreign aid as weaknesses of the plans. Whereas the centralized planning system, political influence of federal government, weak agricultural infrastructure services in secondary cities, and cross-border war were the threats hampered in the execution of development plans. Considering these results, the study suggests development of planning policies in the five-year development plans to stimulate the agriculture industrial development in secondary cities and devolution of powers can help to achieve sustainable agricultural development.