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AUGUST
2007
ISSUES:
Evictions
worst form of HR violations: HRCP
The
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has criticized the mass
evictions taking place in Karachi under development plans executed without
citizen consultation.
“Evictions are a serious human rights violation. The Vity District
Government Karachi (CDGK) evictions are carried out in a thoughtless
manner and disregard the international commitments that Pakistan has made,”
said a statement issued Friday by the HRCP. The HRCP condemned the
eviction of residents of Garhi Faqir Goth, Mehran Town and Korangi
Industrial Area and mentioned the demolition of 500 houses which has left
3,000 to 3,500 people homeless since July 26.
The HRCP expressed concern over violence inflicted on women and children
during the evictions and condemned the arrest of over 12 men. “Those
arrested in this incident should be released,” they demanded. The HRCP
also demanded immediate compensation for the homeless, as well as
reparations for all the damages they have suffered.
(Daily
Times, 04/08/2007)
City
govt bulldozes lives in pursuit of ‘development’
A Pakistani flag limply flutters in the oppressive noontime breeze,
precariously placed atop the ugly rubble of destroyed houses. The
residents mill about, picking up the pieces and trying to rebuild their
lives after the Karachi city government, in an apparent anti-encroachment
drive, razed the majority of structures in Korangi Town’s Gahi Fakir
Goth on July 25 and 26, 2007.
Officials of the Korangi Town and the city government have defended the
action and claim sufficient notice was given to the residents to shift
elsewhere, as the area needed to be cleared for the construction of a
road. But the residents themselves and human rights groups have contested
the official claims and say no notice was issued.
“They
warned us an hour before. Then 10 to 15 police mobiles pulled up, as well
as youths belonging to a political party, some of whom were armed. They
started thrashing the men and misbehaved with the women and children. This
was around 11am, when most of the men were at work. They took whatever
they could grab and loaded it up in their trucks. We understand that
demolitions have to take place, but at least we could have been warned,”
says the prayer leader of one of the goth’s three mosques, which
survived the demolition drive. “I pleaded with the authorities to give
us a little time and not to destroy the mosque,” he adds.
Yusuf Khattak, coordinator of the Child and Labour Rights Organisation,
says the goth was established in 1981. He adds that a survey needs to be
done to assess the exact extent of the damage. Some residents say its
origins go back to 1973; officials in the city government’s land
enforcement department, on the other hand, say these claims are incorrect.
Goth
was here before the factories
Gahi
Fakir Goth lies in the shadow of the National Refinery and is surrounded
by factories. Most of its inhabitants are Bengali- and Sindhi-speakers and
work as labourers in the nearby factories.
According
to Naban Brohi, President of the action committee formed by the residents
after the city government’s action, the goth predates the factories and
was moved to its current location, underneath high-tension wires, after
the factories were established. He also claims that the goth runs parallel
to the road from the Chamra Roundabout to the Godown Roundabout, while
other residents showed this writer a graveyard located by the Jam Sadik
Bridge, where they claimed members of their family were buried and which
dated back some 40 years. Residents claim the removal operation was
supervised by the Korangi town nazim, TPO and the president of the
industrial estate where the goth lies, whereas the town nazim denies he
was present. “This was a city government operation. The residents were
verbally warned two or three days before the operation. They were not
issued any notices as they could have used this in court to obtain a stay
order against the demolition. It is clearly an illegal occupation. Some of
the people (residents) actually attacked the police vehicles during the
operation and injured an ASI,” Korangi Town Nazim Arif Khan told Dawn,
adding that some of the residents were armed.
Iqbal Qureshi, the DO Estate Management, however, told this reporter that
removal notices had been issued to the residents.
“This operation comes under the Tameer-i-Karachi Programme. This
particular project has been going on for the past six months. The
industrialists of the area had complained that they were facing problems
with the movement of trailers. Hence the road needed to be widened. The
encroachers had been issued notices, while they were warned verbally as
well.”
One of the goth residents claimed that the factory owners had colluded
with the land mafia to gobble up the land and get rid of the poor
inhabitants, some of whom had spent their entire life’s earnings on
building their simple dwellings, now reduced to rubble.
The
right to shelter
“The
right to shelter is a fundamental right under the constitution of
Pakistan. These evictions have been taking place from time to time but the
pace has picked up due to the development projects,” Zohra Yusuf, the
HRCP’s Vice-Chairperson (Sindh), told Dawn over the telephone.
“Our main objection is to the lack of consultation, as residents are not
informed about these (demolition drives) beforehand. If, because of
certain projects, the need arises (for these drives), representatives of
the community and citizens’ groups should be consulted,” she added.
The question arises that if, as the residents claim, the goth has been
around since the seventies or eighties, why did it take so long for the
government to take action, after generations of settlers had established
themselves there?
“We just want the government to provide us some alternative land for
shelter. So many lives have been destroyed here. We cannot even begin to
count the losses,” the prayer leader observed.
(By
Qasim A. Moini, Daily Dawn, 09/08/2007)
Displacements
and compensation
President
Ayub Khan’s `Decade of Development’ stands out for its economic
performance but it failed in addressing the issue of equitable
distribution of resources, especially among the marginalised sections of
population and in protecting the resources. Similar policies prevailed in
the succeeding decades.
Now, in the name of development, people are evicted from their lands and
various housing schemes have been launched on fertile agricultural lands.
One should ask, what kind of development we require and at what cost?
In an anti-encroachment drive, about 35,00 peoples were rendered homeless
as a result of demolition of nearly 5,00 homes in Korangi Town’s Gahi
Faqir Goth. The area had to be cleared for constructing a road. Officials
of the concerned town committee and the city government claimed that a
notice was served on the residents and sufficient time was given to them
for shifting elsewhere. However the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
said that the city government undertook the exercise in a “thoughtless
manner”. Such displacements create impoverishment and push people into a
situation of transitory or permanent food insecurity because of loss of
physical and non-physical assets. Not only this, when entire communities
are uprooted, it disrupts seriously their way of life. Livelihoods are
also affected and children are forced to quit schools. As a matter of
fact, economically and politically weaker sections of society should not
be made to suffer in the name of development. The first priority of the
government should be to find out alternatives to displacements. If
displacement is unavoidable, action should be taken in a manner that would
ensure that the displaced persons would be benefited from the project.
A fair compensation should be the first demand although compensation alone
is not sufficient to rehabilitate the displaced. In the past, there are
examples which clearly show that government failed in providing the
benefit of development project to displaced persons.
Although as per the Constitution, housing and urban planning is a
provincial subject, in the case of Islamabad, the federal government was
directly involved. The Capital Development Ordinance provided specific
powers to CDA for land acquisition and payments of compensation. Apart
from cash compensation paid according to the regulations, the affected
were also given additional compensation in the form of land on
concessional rate.
However, there are number of cases pending before courts regarding meagre
compensations. There are also cases wherein disputes between the CDA and
the affected persons led to the use of force by police for evictions. The
eviction from the village, Sri Saral (D-12 area) is a case in point.
Compensation were announced in 1968 and in 1969 but most people have not
received any compensation as yet.
During the second tenure of Nawaz Sharif, construction work on the Lahore–Islamabad
motorway was carried out in a hasty manner. Thousands of families living
on the periphery of the newly constructed motorway faced extreme
difficulties including division of their lands, stoppage of water supply,
and blockage of the approach ways to cattle grazing grounds and
graveyards. The project, in fact, disturbed the entire cultural habitat
and the livelihood patterns in the area.
Taisar Town Scheme is one of the best examples of compensation by
resettlement and rehabilitation of Lyari Expressway project. At that time,
the city district government of Karachi, prior to eviction, announced that
displaced families will be resettled or compensated according to the law.
Conversely, in present case, the city district government failed to
provide any compensation or shelter by refusing their rights on the land.
The question is, if, as the residents claim, the `goth’ has been around
since the 70’s and 80’s, why did it take so long for the government to
take action? Various housing schemes are announced. The real estate barons
come up with attractive, pollution free, green and fortified exclusive
housing colonies while eliminating the lower class neighborhoods.
In the case of Punjab Employees Housing Foundation, that acquired rich
fertile private lands of Bahawalpur, Multan, Faisalabad, and Gujranwala
for building houses for retired/serving employees under the name of
`development for public purposes” Here the notion of `public purposes’
seems to be quite debatable.
Let us look at some of the big urban centres of Punjab: Multan, Bahawalpur
and Rahim Yar Khan are cotton territory. All the three cities have grown
in size; many fields have given in to construction business. In Multan,
even trees in some mango orchards have been felled to create space for
residential areas. Lahore and Faisalabad grow wheat.
These cities have expanded manifold over the years. Indeed in some areas,
the traditional rural urban distinction has been obliterated by one huge
urban complex comprising houses where previously vegetable crops were
grown.
The notion of development is, “constant improvement in the well-being of
the entire population.” The government needs to assess all development
projects to ensure that the human cost is kept to a minimum.
The immediate need is for alternate housing to compensate the uprooted
people. An effort should be made to develop housing in areas that are not
the most productive agriculture land. Fertile land should be protected
from housing and industries at all costs.
(By
Nusrat Khurshedi, Daily Dawn, 20/08/2007)
12
My mayhem and demolition of settlement
Massive
rally by Sindh Bachao Action Committee
Sindh Bachao Action Committee (SBAC) comprising mainstream political and
Sindhi nationalist parties on Friday warned the provincial authorities to
refrain from depriving people of Sindh of their basic rights on the basis
of ethnicity, saying “otherwise the rulers would have to face the wrath
of the masses.”
The SBAC leaders were addressing a large number of their party workers in
front of the Karachi Press Club (KPC) where they reached from Regal Chowk
in the form of a rally, taken out against the May 12 mayhem and demolition
of Katchi Abadis and villages by the City District Government-Karachi (CDGK).
Participants of the rally were carrying flags of their respective parties
and banners inscribed with demands for halting demolition of Katchi Abadis
and old villages by the CDGK as well as the alleged distribution of
government jobs among coalition partners in Sindh.
Speaking to participants of the rally, STP chief and nationalist leader Dr
Qadir Magsi criticised the ruling coalition partners PML-Q and MQM in
Sindh for allegedly distributing government jobs among themselves in a
ratio of 50:50 and termed it as depriving the people of Sindh of their
basic rights.
(The News, 18/08/2007)
SHC
takes up 550 LEW claims
A
Sindh High Court division bench directed the High Court’s nazir to
inspect a site and determine if there was truth to the claims of the
petitioners, seeking compensation or alternate plots for their properties
that were allegedly acquired for Lyari Expressway Project (LEWP).
About 550 petitioners, including Sajjad Hussain and others, submitted that
their properties, situated in Madina Colony and other areas of the
metropolis, were acquired because they were within the range of the LEWP.
The petitioners submitted that their properties were acquired but no
compensation or alternate plots were provided. The counsel representing
the city government has rejected the petitioners’ claims and submitted
that they were false.
The division bench, comprising Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Ali
Sain Dino Metlo, appointed the High Court’s nazir to inspect the site
and present a report.
The petitioners prayed for directives to the respondents – the CDGK, EDO
revenue, LEWP project director, National Highway Authority chairman, and
others - to pay compensation or provide alternate plots.
(Daily
Times, 10/08/2007)
One
step towards the promised land our correspondent
Sarfraz
Khan, along with countless others, was rendered homeless after his home
was demolished in order to build the Lyari Expressway. He has now received
a copy of a letter from the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Public
Grievances and Proposals Wing Islamabad which has directed the District
Coordination Officer (DCO) District Government, Karachi to address his
case.
According to information contained in the letter, the concerned DCO has
been told that the Prime Minister’s Secretariat has received Khan’s
petition. It recommends that the petitioner’s request be considered and
appropriate action be taken in response to it. Khan, who along with his
10-year-old son, Nadir had been forced to live on the streets after his
quarter was demolished (in the area around Gulshan-e-Iqbal Bridge). He was
neither given an alternate plot, nor did he receive any form of
compensation. Ironically, when the government had first announced plans to
build the Lyari Expressway it had assured citizens that every affectee
will be granted an alternate plot and a reasonable amount of money to
facilitate construction of new quarters.
Although a number of people received the promised plots, dozens of others
claim to still be homeless. Khan and various others have alleged that
their share of the plots was usurped by the then councilor who filed a
false claim to it.
Since then, Khan has left no stone unturned in terms of approaching the
authorities to seek justice. His efforts proved futile until this letter
arrived as a ray of hope that he may at last be given a plot.
(The
News, 17/08/2007)
Musharraf
opens Rs 3.5 billion Northern Bypass
President
Pervez Musharraf inaugurated the 56-kilometer-long Mega Northern Bypass
project completed at a cost of Rs 3.5 billion and said that it would not
only help ease the traffic problems in Karachi but also boost the growing
economy.
Congratulating the NHA and NLC engineers and technicians on the success of
this mega project, the president said that the construction of the
Northern Bypass will ease traffic pressure within the city. He pointed out
that Karachi has a unique position of being the gateway to Pakistan,
therefore, it is most essential that the city has an effective
communication network to facilitate south-to-north traffic movement. “Nothing
that is done for Karachi is too much. Peace and harmony is essential for
economic growth and south-to-north traffic management,” he added.
The president said that another mega Lyari Expressway project would be
completed soon and, when the southbound expressway is completed in a month
or two, he will inaugurate it. After the completion of the northbound
expressway it will serve like Lahore’s Canal Road and provide access to
all the city areas. President General Pervez Musharraf said that whatever
is being done for Karachi is being done to improve traffic conditions. He
said that traffic has grown so much that the production of cars has
increased from 30,000 to 300,000 per annum and motorcycles from 80,000 to
900,000. This traffic growth has necessitated the construction of new
roads, flyovers and underpasses.
While referring to signal-free corridor I, he said that the city
government has planned a similar corridor-II from Nagan Chowrangi to Shara-e-Faisal
and an important link road from the airport to University Town, which will
also link Qasba to the city after the hills are cut.
(Daily
Times, 07/08/2007)
No
taxation without representation
As
Pakistan marked its 60th anniversary of independence, residents of Karachi
witnessed for themselves firsthand the difference between an elected
civilian and an imposed military dispensation. They also realized,
hopefully, who can deliver in times of crisis and who can be held
responsible. This is a micro example of what is a macro problem for
Pakistan. And the lessons learnt on the 60th independence anniversary of
our country need to be remembered for long.
For those unaware, Karachi is divided into several mini-governments. This
should not be confused with the eighteen towns that exist under City Nazim
Mustafa Kamal. These mini-governments are the cantonment boards and other
stakeholders like the Karachi Port Trust and other entities, who also have
carved out large chunks of the city into their mini-fiefdoms.
This is a strange arrangement. The city mayor (nazim) has control of many
parts of the city, but the prime spots are under unelected administrators
and “CEO’s”. If the two nazims of the city, the immediate past nazim,
Advocate Naimatullah, and the current nazim, Mustafa Kamal, agree on one
thing, it is the unfair arrangement under which the mini-fiefdoms tax
residents but give little or nothing in return. These are mini-empires,
rich in their coffers and happy to indulge in their whims and fancies,
while the city government is strapped for cash. This state of affairs was
the basis of the Karachi Package under which General Musharraf forced
these stakeholders to cough up money for city projects in the year 2000.
Advocate Naimatullah argued that while the Karachi Port Trust levied
charges for port usage and other charges, it gave nothing to the city
government whose roads and facilities were used for the movement of the
cargo.
The Karachi Package of the government has been a success. The city has got
some much needed infrastructure projects which it had been deprived of in
the past. However, one must also make a distinction in the
mini-stakeholders. The first are the organizations that use the city
infrastructure directly or indirectly. These should give money to the city
government since the stake holders charge for them at their end. They have
started doing that, although grudgingly.
But
that does not mean that these stakeholders, almost all military run,
respect what the city government and its people are trying to build on.
Take for example the NLC. One fine day, it started digging sand from main
Clifton Beach for its work in DHA Phase 8. These caused craters in a
public beach and put hundreds of lives at risk. No one took the NLC to
task. The Environment Protection Agency of the Sindh government has
neither the teeth nor the backing to take action.
Then there is the Karachi Port Trust, whose chairman, a retired military
man, insists that his organization is not accountable to the public
because it is a trust. Many chairmen have made their fortunes from the KPT.
One only needs to look at their houses in Islamabad. For its part, the KPT
has been abusing Karachi beach environment for several decades now. But no
action is taken. It is only after our vessels end up polluting foreign
ports that we understand how much goes on at home.
Then there are the cantonment boards. They pay nothing and yet earn from
the city in billions. And they are accountable to no one except the
military high command. The word “Cantonment Board” is itself a
misnomer. These areas, for all practical purposes, are military-run
overwhelmingly civilian areas. They may have been military cantonments at
some point but are now overwhelmingly in the middle of civilian areas
where the majority of residents are civilians.
By no account today can they be classified as cantonments. More important,
the tax payers are all civilians. As it is, those with military
credentials pay a fraction of what their civilian counterparts dole out in
municipal taxes. And yet the military calls the shots. Because they are
military run, they have managed to survive despite this contradiction in
their existence. And they have been turned into lucrative money making
machines.
The problem starts when despite the heavy taxation they resort to, there
is no representation. This also means that there is no accountability at
all. And this makes these cantonment boards some of the most badly run and
corrupt organizations which the tax payer supports. These boards are
charged with providing municipal services to their areas of jurisdiction.
But they have bigger plans as a result of which their services suffer. It’s
time for a rethink.
One wonders what their priorities are. More important, why are they here?
In the recent rains in Karachi, the difference in the services these
boards offer as compared to the city government became apparent. What was
also evident was their unrepentant attitude. Take the example of the
Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC). The CBC is one of the richest cantonment
boards in the country. But when rains hit Karachi over the weekend, it was
caught napping as usual. A “complaints hotline” which was much
publicized was not functioning. There was no senior official available to
address the complaints of residents of Defence Housing Authority and
Clifton, two prestigious areas where standing rainwater seeped into houses
and water tanks after mixing with sewage. Residents said that no help was
available. Most of the lower staff of the CBC, they alleged, had been
deputed to the Generals’ Colony situated next to the Zamzama Park to
help clean the roads there despite the fact that there was no flooding
there.
The CEO of the CBC, a gentleman named Khwaja Iftikhar Mir, does not have
the moral courage to come up and explain why his organization simply
folded in the face of heavy rains. He and his PRO simply turned off their
phones. He is not accountable to the people so he does not care. One may
recall that the CBC is responsible for a number of deaths caused by
falling billboards two months back when a storm hit the city. In that
instance, again the CBC offered no compensation or apology. It did not
even own up to the fact that it had allowed oversized boards to be put up
in its greed to earn more. The rains started on Friday. Mir and his team
had an “emergency meeting” on Monday.
Instead of providing adequate municipal services, the CBC is more
interested in grand money making schemes. Like a shopping plaza over a
park on Main Clifton Road. Karachi has become a milking cow for the
higher-ups of CBC and other boards. In contrast, the city nazim faced
abuse and much more last year when rains inundated city roads and made
life miserable. This year, following a number of projects the city
government undertook, despite record rains the situation in city
government-controlled areas was not as bad.
And yet, the nazim was up and about as the rains started, supervising
clean up operations. The city government even lent a hand to the DHA and
Clifton areas as well as other cantonment controlled areas as these places
had no other way to drain water. The work of the city government may not
have been perfect. But they tried under trying circumstances. And the
nazim, whether we like him or not, was ready to face the people who pay
taxes to his organization.
In the final analysis, just like our country needs to be governed by
people who we can hold accountable, the cantonment board areas have to be
handed over to elected representatives. Local bodies elections have to be
held and councillors brought on board. This party cannot go on.
(By
Kamal Siddiqi, The News
New
flyovers and bridges will not solve traffic problems in the city
The
DIG of Traffic and the city nazim blamed each other for the traffic mess
in Karachi at a seminar organized by an NGO. There are 27 points on major
roads of the city where permanent ditches have developed, 55 roads where
development work is ongoing and after the rains more than 206 points which
are inundated, said DIG Traffic Wajid Ali Durrani.
The
traffic police and city government have been criticized over the worsening
congestion. In a bid to discuss the solutions, NGO Shehri-CBE organized
the seminar in collaboration with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation at a
local hotel.
DIG
Durrani said that despite new flyovers, underpasses and bridges traffic
problems had not been solved. The traffic and general police have to
compromise on several fronts, especially on encroachment removal and law
enforcement, due to ‘political pressure’, he said.
For his part, City Nazim Mustafa Kamal held the DIG Traffic responsible
for the crippling traffic jams in the city. He said that the DIG had
underestimated him. He claimed there were not 50 but 500 roads under
construction and he asked if the DIG would guarantee that there would be
no traffic jams once these roads were completed.
Arif Hassan said that a Light Rail Transit System (LRT) and non-integrated
underpasses, flyovers and bypasses would only add to the city’s misery
as cities worldwide had already experienced the hazardous impacts of such
non-planned constructions and ‘symbolic projects’, rather than
sustainable and planned development.
He also criticized the Elevated Expressway and LRT projects, which he
feared, would destroy the rich and glorious heritage of Karachi.
Roland DeSouza said that the fate of Karachi must be decided her rather
than Islamabad. He added that the CDGK must never ‘buy’ projects from
foreign ‘sellers’ without considering their costs and assessing
whether the city really needed them or not. “We got our ‘promised land’
in 1947 but turned it into a desert after 60 years by our own hands,” he
remarked.
Dr. Noman Ahmad said that CDGK must never limit itself to one Master Plan
but rather develop a planning department to keep updating master plans for
future needs. Staff Report adds: The experts said that an increasing
number of the cars, absence of the proper car parking arrangements in
commercial hubs and proper land zoning regulations are the actual reasons
behind the frequent traffic jams.
“The city district government has planned for the first time in the city’s
history to initiate multi-storey car parking plazas at three points,”
offered Kamal. Three car parking plazas, at Shahabuddin Market (adjacent
to Empress Market) with a 2,500-car capacity, Lines Area (right behind
Rainbow Center) with a 500-car capacity and one in Clifton with a 700-car
capacity have been planned. Part of the problem is also that several
different authorities (DHA, cantonment boards) control different areas
generating sewerage and solid waste without paying a single penny to the
city government, said the nazim. “And we have to solve these problem,”
he said, adding that there is no mutual understanding between the traffic
engineering, traffic department and the city government.
DIG Traffic contradicted a news item published by newspapers saying that
the Supreme Court of Pakistan has taken suo moto action over the massive
traffic jam in the city this week. “It was a human rights petition filed
by a citizen,” he clarified.
Chairman of the Urban Resource Center (URC) Arif Hasan said that a lack of
proper planning has caused the traffic problem in the city. “At many
places, carparks [areas] have been converted into shopping areas,” he
informed the audience.
He urged that while preparing the master plan for traffic management,
especially on Bundar Road, the government must consider the heritage
sites. “There are hundreds of colonial era heritage buildings on either
side of Bundar Road, including the first library of the city, Denso Hall,
Radio Pakistan and a temple which spread over four kilometers and must be
considered before planning for traffic,” Hasan said.
Quoting a study by the chairman of the department of architecture at NED
University, Prof. Dr. Noman Ahmed said that a majority of the drivers of
Karachi hailed from the rural areas and were unaware of traffic rules and
urban behaviour which was also causing problems.
Roland DeSouza of Shehri, CDGK DG Mass Transit Malik Zaheerul Islam, EDO
(Transport & Communication) Dr Tahir Soomro and others also addressed
the seminar.
(Daily
Times, 17/08/2007)
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