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JANUARY
2010
ISSUES:
200
lives lost to targeted killings in over one year
More
than 200 people have been murdered and hundreds of others wounded in at
least five rounds of targeted killings since November 2008, exposing the
militant face of political parties and police reluctance to maintain law
and order in the city.
The months-long police inaction paved the way for the paramilitary
Rangers to be allowed to shoot on sight and carry out house searches and
arrest suspects without warrants in the metropolis.
In all cases of targeted killings, progress in the investigation
remained almost zero, while police have always put the blame for their
inactive role on political parties.
At a recent press conference, Capital City Police Chief Waseem Ahmed
alleged that political considerations hampered their work, but he was
quick to add that the police would act against anyone who broke the
law.
The police chief is not alone in paying lip service to security issues,
political parties also issue similar statements at the end of their
meetings which they hold from time to time to settle disputes. At times
political parties blamed the land and drug mafia for the killings in an
attempt to blunt criticism over their role in violence.
The fresh wave of targeted killings of Muttahida Qaumi Movement and
Awami National Party activists that began on the night of Jan 29 with
the murder of two activists in a clash allegedly over some graffiti
remained largely confined to Orangi Town during the first two days.
However, it spilled over to the neighbouring areas of Nazimabad when
five people were gunned down in an attack in Mujahid Colony on Monday
night. The violence further spread to other areas when two persons were
murdered in PECHS on Tuesday.
Around 40 people have been gunned down during the four days in different
parts of the city. This is the fifth round of targeted killings reported
in the city since November 2008.
Earlier, Lyari witnessed a series of targeted killings in the first week
of January. The New Year was marked with a showdown between the MQM and
a so-called drug mafia in Lyari, where the former claimed their activist
was gunned down first. The violence that remained limited to the areas
within the remit of the Garden and Pak Colony police stations claimed
around 40 lives.
In an attempt to defuse the tension, Interior Minister Rehman Malik and
MQM MNA Dr Farooq Sattar flanked by the governor and the chief minister
issued statements that action would be taken against all types of mafia.
Leaders from both sides readily blamed the mafia for the trouble,
followed by a Rangers attempt to enter streets of Lyari at night. The
move attracted reaction from area residents. They staged a huge
demonstration at the Karachi Press Club the following day, seeking the
removal of the interior minister whom they held responsible for the show
of force and arrest of many people in an operation in Lyari.
Surprisingly, the Sindh government disassociated itself from the action
in Lyari and all those detained by the Rangers were released on the home
minister’s orders.
Variations in the views of the interior minister and the chief minister
over action in Lyari were exposed when the latter in front of the media
stated that the provincial government had no role in the Lyari
action.
The first, second and third rounds of targeted killings were reported in
November 2008, April 2009 and June 2009, respectively.
Forty-seven
political activists were killed in June followed by 21 more murders in
July last year. Activists mainly from the MQM and the MQM-H were killed
in the third wave of targeted killings.
Record
shows that the city has been witnessing an increase in targeted killings
since May 2009.
On June 8, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani dashed to Karachi, taking
notice of the killings as the death toll had reached 22 by then.
Earlier, 50 people were killed and 94 others were wounded in April. This
was the second round of targeted killings reported since the coalition
government was formed in Sindh.
Official record showed that 16 people had been shot dead in different
parts of the city till April 28. However, there was a sharp increase in
the violence, as the figures swelled to 74 casualties, including 34
deaths, in matter of hours on April 29. Police statistics show that 43
people belonging to the Pakhtun community and seven Urdu-speaking people
were killed during the month. Apart from the loss of life, shops,
hotels, auto-rickshaws and minibuses were lost to the violence. In
what can be described as the first round of targeted killings since the
People’s Party government came to power in the Centre and Sindh in
coalition with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Awami National
Party, more than 40 people were killed in November 2008.
Most people from the Pashtun community and some from the Urdu-speaking
community were targeted in the first wave of killings that lasted for
three to four days.
It was during this period that Karachi witnessed attacks at teashops
where hotel owners and workers were targeted. A sizable number of
teashops were closed down by their owners in the city fearing for their
lives.
What
dominated all five rounds of the target killings was the inactive role
of the law-enforcement agencies against the perpetrators.
(By
S. Raza Hassan, Daily Dawn, 08/02/2010)
An
inconvenient bargain
The
Preedy Street project, part of Signal Free Corridor-III (SFC-III), is
another project which displaced thousands of people in Lines Area and
Preedy Street. The affected were rehabilitated at Mehmoodabad No21/2, at
an open space available besides the Sewerage Treatment Plant. A survey
conducted by Kolachi revealed that the new place might have had space to
adjust the affected, but it does not have the basic necessities of life,
including electricity and gas. A makeshift system has been arranged to
facilitate some of the families living there, but there isn't a proper
road network either.
Hundreds
of those affected have been shifted to the new place, but the houses are
still under construction. Many of them are still living in Lines Area on
a rental basis till date, while most claim that they will shift to their
new houses as soon as construction work is completed. There were also
some who are awaiting the conclusion of the academic year of their
children.
People
who have been shifted to Mehmoodabad claim that they are happy to be at
a new place, but they now have to spend more money on the purchase of
household items, vegetables, fruits, meat and groceries. "This
place is quite expensive as compared to Lines Area, as I have to walk
all the way to the market to buy items," an inhabitant of the
Block-B told Kolachi.
Another
resident of the area said that there is no place for recreational
activities for children. "They have to sit in their house all the
time, and due to improper road infrastructure, they cannot even play
outside the house," she added.
On
the other hand, several affected sold the property they received to
others at handsome rates after securing legal documents of their new
houses. "At that time, the value of the land was over one million
rupees, but now it is worth only Rs0.6million or Rs0.7million,"
residents of Lines Area told Kolachi. "Some of the real estate
agencies also scammed many during the allotment process. They showed
houses which were bulldozed, and claimed that these were for the
affected. In return, they earned a plot in Mehmoodabad," claimed
residents.
BACKGROUND:
As
many as 1,385 houses at the Preedy Street were demolished with approval
from local residents so as to extend SFC-III, an 18-kilometre-long
track, that is supposed to act as an alternative artery to Sharea Faisal
and Sharah-e-Pakistan. The entire project was completed in four months
at a cost of Rs2.25 billion. The Preedy Street, which is a part of the
SFC-III, spans 2.5km and the project alone cost around Rs203 million to
the city government. Approximately 1, 459 residential and commercial
plots were distributed among the affected. The City District Government
Karachi (CDGK) distributed Rs50, 000 as well as a plot to each affected,
Dr Saif-ur-Rehman, Project Director, Lines Area told Kolachi.
Rehman
said that there were five blocks that were identified for the affected.
Plots in the 'A' category were allocated to people who were living in
Lines Area before 1974, and measured 120 square yards. Plots in 'B'
category were given to the families who came to Lines Area after 1974;
these plots measured 80 square yards. Commercial plots of 20 square
yards each are located in the 'C' category, he explained.
Replying
to a question about whether resettling the affected near a treatment
plant would be hazaradous, he said that the treatment plant is not
functional and therefore there isn't any chance of harm to the people.
"The affected have been shifted to an environment-friendly place
and this is a far better place to live in than the previous
location," he claimed. Once the people allowed the authorities to
demolish their houses on Preedy Street, the jon of labourers became much
simple, as they completed 40 per cent of the work in 20 days. The
completion of Preedy Street was targeted within three months due to the
support and assistance of the public, and the authority concerned also
appreciated this support wider interest of Pakistan and Karachi in
particular, Rehman said.
(By
Zeeshan Azmat, The News, 14, 21/12/2009)
Law
passed to regularise pre-97 Katchi Abadis
The Sindh Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed the Sindh Katchi
Abadis (Amendment) Bill-2009, empowering the provincial government to
regularise the Abadis across the province that were established before
June 30, 1997.
Sindh Katchi Abadis Minister Rafiq Engineer said that that the law was
aimed at providing relief to dwellers of the remaining Katchi Abadis by
extending the cut-off date for regularisation from March 23, 1985 to
June 30, 1997. He said that the need to extend date of regularisation
was felt, as Punjab had already extended date of regularisation of its
shanty towns and slum areas to 2006. He said that this law would also
help develop Katchi Abadis by providing basic amenities and constructing
cheap houses for the poor.
Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) legislator Nuzhat Pathan
appreciated the law, but suggested that it would be advisable for the
government to look into the fact that the concept of Katchi Abadis has
changed. She said that that a new trend has emerged, whereby influential
people grab land in the name of slum areas through their agents. She
said that a committee comprising of legislators should be set up at
district level, so that only the deserving could get leases.
Pathan
said that there were 400 Katchi Abadis in Qasimabad, Hyderabad, adding
that the home department and other departments concerned should take
action against the mafias who had occupied the slum areas.
Awamin National Part (ANP) legislator Amanullah Mahsood criticised the
City District Government Karachi (CDGK) for not considering Katchi
Abadis as part of the city, and demolishing them.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) legislator Ibrar retorted that the CDGK
provided basic amenities to 62 villages in the city, and for first time,
also provided drinking water to residents of Keamari. He maintained,
however, that the MQM supported the bill, and also appreciated the
revenue department for establishing a cell to conduct an inquiry into
fake old villages. He said that the poor reside in slum areas and it was
their long-standing demand that they should be given a lease.
Sindh Law Minister Muhammad Ayaz Soomro said that that it was Benazir
Bhuttos dream to regularise slum areas, which is now being
realized.
Munawar Abbasi suggested that the cut-off date should be extended beyond
1997, as many Katchi Abadis had emerged during the last decade. He said
that the rate of lease should not be charged from the poor at market
rates.
Anwar Mahr, Sharjeel Memon, Shamim Ara Panhwar, Nadeem Bhutto and Ram
Singh Sodho also spoke in favour of the bill.
(By
Imtiaz Ali, The News-13, 18/12/2009)
Move
against heritage demolition
The Sindh government has decided to take legal action against anyone
found involved in unauthorised demolition of the buildings declared
protected as cultural heritage.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Sindh Cultural Heritage
Committee presided over by Chief Secretary Fazalur Rehman. The
committee assigned the task of registering FIRs against offenders to the
Karachi Building Control Authority and asked the EDO of municipal
services & works to ensure cleanliness in and around such
buildings. A technical subcommittee was constituted to look into
the technical issues in this regard in coordination with the secretary
of antiquities.
Architect Arif Hassan Khan, and officials Yasmeen Lari, Shams Jafrani,
Kaleem Lashari, Javed Hanif and Anila Naeem attended the meeting.
(Dawn-13,
19/01/2010)
Call
to halt demolition of heritage buildings
Concerned
over the ongoing demolition of protected buildings damaged in the arson
attacks on Dec 28, experts on Wednesday demanded an immediate halt to
the destruction and stressed that the buildings be restored rather than
be torn down and rebuilt.
Speaking at a briefing organised by the Heritage Foundation at the
Karachi Press Club, architect Yasmeen Lari lamented that on the
10th of Muharram not only were innocent lives lost and businesses
destroyed, but precious buildings were also burnt and vandalised. She
said those structures needed to be retrofitted and restored on an
immediate basis. She said of the 12 identified buildings on M. A.
Jinnah Road, five were declared dangerous by the KBCA. She said
thankfully Denso Hall escaped the disaster and Husaini Manzil was
adopted by the Karachi Electric Supply Company on which Heritage
Foundation would soon start restoration work.
Ms Lari regretted that instead of being restored, the damaged edifices
were being dismantled, which she said should be stopped
immediately.
Adil Gilani of Transparency International said Boultan Market provided
businesses to all of Pakistan, but it was set on fire. He said
reconstructing the damaged buildings with a new angle would not serve
the purpose: they should be restored as they originally stood. He
argued that the myth that the building mafia was behind it should be
dispelled, because those who called the shots in the country were not
doing their job. The media in this regard had an important role to play;
it must highlight that constructing anew was not the right thing to do;
the facades must be (and can be) restored to their original forms.
Samar Ali Khan, vice-chairman of the Pakistan Council of Architects and
Town Planners, said the council was fully supporting Heritage Foundation
in its noble cause and the media should also join hands. He said: “We
cannot allow history to suffer.”
Shahab Ghani, the president of the Institute of Architects Pakistan,
said if a person who lived in Karachi 30 years ago revisited the city,
he would not be able to recognise it, because so many ill-planned things
had happened. He said those who thought that Karachi could become
another Dubai were terribly mistaken. It would be criminal to ignore the
colonial and Mughal buildings that existed in the city, because they are
our collective heritage.
Engineer M. Najeeb Haroon said after the horrific incidents of Dec 28
the Institute of Consulting Engineers had contacted the authorities
concerned, including the city nazim and the chief controller of
buildings of the Karachi Building Control Authority, and offered their
voluntary services for the restoration project, but the offer was
ignored. He said our heritage was being obliterated and we must do
something about it.
The head of the audio-visual department of Karachi University, Durriya
Kazi, said the wholesalers who lost their livelihoods on Dec 28 were a
hard working lot. They took pride in what they did, which is why their
association with their market was strong. Talking about the torched
buildings, she said reconstruction was not the solution because
high-rises could not be raised in the affected areas. She requested
the developers to undertake development work without cutting off
roots.
Mujahid Sadiq of the Institute of Architects’ Karachi chapter also
said his institute would lend full support to Heritage Foundation in its
efforts.
Journalist Shahnaz Ramzi said those who wanted Karachi to develop like
Dubai forgot that Dubai did not have a history.
(By
Peerzada Salman, Daily Dawn, 28/01/2010)
471
graveyards in city out of space, tribesmen occupy burial lands
Tribal
families have encroached lands reserved for major graveyards to meet the
city’s need for burials. The Sindh Board of Revenue (BoR) had
allocated three lands at different remote locations to the City District
Government Karachi to establish graveyards as the existing 471
graveyards in the city have been officially closed due to lack of space.
The Sindh BoR had allotted a 200-acre land in Gadap Town, a 50-acre plot
in the vicinity of the Hub Dam and a 100-acre plot on the National
Highway. However, different tribes have converted these lands into
specific family graveyards, while armed tribesmen have been preventing
citizens to bury their dead there.
There are around 471 large and small graveyards in the city inclusive of
graveyards of other religious communities such as the Christian and the
Hindu. Out of these 471 graveyards, 50 percent have been closed due to
lack of space, while the remaining have very little space available only
in the form of ruined graves.
The CDGK has control of around 70 graveyards in the city. Seventeen
different authorities administratively control the rest of the
graveyards, while certain religious communities have their own
graveyards wherein burial of dead belonging to other communities is not
allowed.
The city’s major graveyards - PECHS Graveyard, Sakhi Hassan Graveyard,
Mewa Shah Graveyard, Paposh Nagar Graveyard, Hassan Square Graveyard,
Essa Nagri Graveyard, Bhangoriya Goth Graveyard, Colony Gate Graveyard,
Korangi No 6 Graveyard and Khokhrapar Graveyard - have been officially
closed since long, but burials have still been taking place in them.
When contacted, CDGK Municipal Services Executive District Officer
Masood Alam told Daily Times that the CDGK was working on a different
option, according to which a plot of land was being looked for in the
heart of the city.
He said the city was controlled by 17 different agencies such as
cantonment boards, Karachi Port Trust, Civil Aviation Authority,
Pakistan International Airlines, Defence Officers Housing Authority and
others; however, these agencies do not have specific graveyards for the
burial of their dead.
Consequently, the burial takes place in the city’s already closed
graveyards; therefore, these authorities should also delineate land for
graveyards. He also said the immediate concern was to evict the
encroachers so that necessary development work could be initiated there.
As far as the security of the people taking their dead for burial to
these distant graveyards was concerned, it could be managed, but the
citizens would have no other choice except to take their dead there, he
added.
Apart from other businesses, burial of the dead is one of the most
promising ones in the city. Old graves that have been abandoned since
long or graves that, with the passage of time and due to environmental
affects, have been ruined, are replaced with new ones as the spaces of
the old graves are sold for new burials.
The authorities concerned should monitor the situation closely and
protect these officially closed graveyards. Sooner than you think, these
officially closed graveyards would not be able to offer another inch to
the dead for burial. The city is on the threshold of such a situation,
but, unfortunately, there are no lands in the city for new graveyards.
The CDGK had allocated Rs 10 million for the city’s graveyards in the
2006-07 budget, but the project could not get going. It is pertinent to
mention here that the Sindh BoR had in 2006-07 allocated the CDGK a
580-acre land on the Super Highway near the new vegetable market, on
which the CDGK had carried out basic development work, but the current
status of that land is so far uncertain and there are reports that the
land has also been encroached by the land mafia.
In 2006, the CDGK had also received various plots including 400 acres in
Deh Choarh; 29 acres in Deh Mull, Malir Town; 45 acres in Rehri; 29
acres in Sector 5, Scheme 33; and 75 acres in Deh Doozan in Sector 44,
Scheme 33.
Different committees at town, union council and community levels were
also constituted to monitor the situation of graveyards, especially
deliberate destruction of abandoned graves, and extortion of money from
the aggrieved families. Nonetheless, these committees could not manifest
any concrete discipline in connection with their assigned tasks.
Graveyards are considered among sacred premises irrespective of
religions. On different occasions, graveyards become one of the most
visited places, especially during religious months. There is a dire need
for the CDGK and the Sindh government to pay attention to the
establishment of graveyards on a few amenity plots.
(By
Irfan Aligi, Daily Times, 08/02/2010)
Cities
being made - unfriendly for poor
January
19, 2010 at 3:52 pm ·As a result of enormous amount of illegal money
that was being funneled in real estate, “poor-friendly cities” were
been transformed into “poor-unfriendly cities,” architect and
town planner Arif Hasan said.
Underground
economy has taken refuge in real estate and was impacting urban
development in a big way. “In 1991, per square meter cost of land in
‘katchi abadi’ was 1.7 times the daily wage. Today it was 40 times
the daily wage. Rent per month in 1991 was 3.5 times of daily wage;
today it is 10 times the daily wage. The construction cost per square
meter in 1991 was 6.6 times the daily wage; today it is 20 times the
daily wage”. The emergence of the welfare state model was born out of
an uneasy reconciliation between capitalism and its national and
international opponents. The demise of welfare state was a result of
market economy, structural adjustments and the role of decentralisation
and devolution.
The
“total control” of three coercive agencies – the United Nations,
World Trade Organisation and the IMF/World Bank – was determining
world politics and development processes. Market economy development
concepts have been promoted through new processes and vocabulary. Today
it was not the business of the state to do business but privatisation
and public-private partnership was the norm and has resulted in massive
privatisation that has not been successful. As a result of these
concepts, what developed were build-operate-transfer and the
build-operate-own concepts of investment. The whole focus was on macro
economics and corporate farming.
India
has seen phenomenal growth but it was as poor as it was 10 years
ago. In India by 2015, 400 million people would be willingly or
unwillingly forced to move from rural to urban areas and the same was
the pattern in Pakistan.
Old
contraband smuggling organisations became inoperative due to liberalism
and they have turned to real estate business leading to speculation.
These underground organisations are powerful and government has
responded by making major changes in zoning bye-laws. These gangs
previously operated separately and have brought conflicts in the market
and have turned to real estate and massive speculation. The state has
responded to these market pressures and made land available for
development through land-use conversion, new development schemes and the
bulldozing low income settlements.
Activists
opposing these changes were often killed. The processes involved were
capital intensive, leading to borrowing from IFCs and in most cases the
bulk of the funds go to the North as technical assistance and in
overheads. In case of Pakistan as much as 38 percent funding went back
to these coercive institutions. The shapes our cities were taking were
the result of a powerful nexus of developers and investors and many of
them were of dubious origins.
The
world class city as envisioned by City Nazim Mustafa Kamal and
many other city leaders across the world was perceived as having an
iconic structure by which a city should be recognised such as an attempt
to build the highest fountain in the world in Karachi. It should be
branded, be an international event city, should have high-rise
apartments as opposed to upgraded settlements and neighbourhoods and it
should cater to tourism, often at the expense of local commerce. This
vision leads to several repercussions: poverty was pushed out of the
city to the periphery through massive bulldozing with disastrous
results; violence and the creation of a new under-class.
As
many as 500,000 people in Delhi have been evicted ahead of Olympics.
Politicians and government planners justify high-rise re-development but
the real question was: Do we need friendly neighbourhoods or high-rises?
People were killed whenever there was resistance against these
developments and properties were burnt. The world class image of the
city has no place in it for informal businesses and hawkers.
As
for the so-called beach development in Karachi, by banning cheap food
you also ban poor people to enjoy the beach. There were three players in
development, namely politicians, planners and the people. As a result of
devolution, however, relationship of utility and planning agencies has
become subservient to politicians and it has led to ad-hocism and
favourtism, while the elected city representatives have become ”mini
gods”. ”In Karachi I see projects replacing planning for a
foreseeable future” . ”It’s not laws that make societies, its
values that make societies”
(Source:http://alaiwah.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/cities-being-made-unfriendly-for-poor/)
Private
schools in Pakistan
In
Pakistan during the 1970s, the government nationalized all private
schools, severely restricting the growth of this sector and its
potential in educating young Pakistanis.
Fast forward twenty years though and you'll find private sector
initiatives in the area of education have re-emerged all over the
country. This hasn't happened in a vacuum though. Rather, private
schools are more in demand than ever before at a time when Pakistan's
public school system is facing massive problems.
Some
of the major problems public schools face include limited financial
resources, poor quality of content and a greater demand for education
amongst parents of school-aged children. Pakistan's public schools are
overcrowded and/or underfunded. These issues have largely fuelled the
revival of private schools in Pakistan.
Although
traditionally, private schools have been a luxury only the rich can
afford, this is not necessarily the case in the current reemergence of
the private sector in Pakistan's education system.
Nationally,
overall private school primary enrolment (as a percentage of total
primary enrolment) is 13 percent in Pakistan.
A
recent survey in urban Pakistan found that 59 percent of households
earning less than Rs 3,500 had children who were enrolled in private
schools in the city of Lahore. Similarly, in the low-income and
economically-deprived Orangi district of Karachi, a surprising 60
percent of all enrolled children went to private primary schools.
The
findings of this study are given added support by a 1996 study conducted
in the urban areas of five districts in the province of Punjab. This
study found that even among low-income households, there was a private
school enrolment rate of 50 percent.
This
trend towards private school education, even amongst those on the lower
economic echelon is not surprising though. Public schools in Pakistan
have largely failed their Pakistani children.
According
to the Human Development in South Asia's 1998 report, 70 per cent of the
schools in Pakistan have no toilets, 68 percent no drinking water, 92
percent no playgrounds, 60 per cent no boundary walls and 16 percent are
without a building.
A
delegation from the UK to Pakistan has also noted a lack of desks,
books, blackboards, electricity, doors, and windows, not to mention the
problem of overcrowded classrooms. And the phenomena of "ghost
schools", institutions which receive government grants but do not
exist, are now common knowledge.
These
are just some of the realities of Pakistani public schools, especially
in rural areas. The country's public school system was once able to
churn out literate, disciplined students. Today, it is a cesspool of
corruption and backwardness. This is why private schools have become an
alternative for parents serious about educating their children, despite
personal financial constraints. Although generally speaking, private
schools have often been criticized for worsening the problem of
inequality in education, the available evidence clearly indicates that
the private education sector is very important in Pakistan. It is
providing quality education in a context of the government's failure to
impart good basic education that is accessible to all Pakistanis.
(January
12, 2010, Posted by Asad http://pakinews9375.blogspot.com/2010/01/private-schools-in-pakistan.html
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