KARACHI, Jan 25: Despite the passage of over two years, the ‘adopter’ of a public park in the up-market Clifton area has failed to initiate any development work, sparking fears amongst the area’s residents that the prime piece of real estate would be misused and used to accommodate residential or commercial complexes, Dawn has learnt.
Under its Adopt a Park scheme, the city government gave control of the roughly eight-acre plot reserved for a public park to the Pakistan Army’s Corps V and a private party for the development of a polo ground in 2005.
The park (plot no. 21/B, Kehkeshan, Clifton) is located opposite Boat Basin Park, along the road that connects Boat Basin to Bilawal Chowrangi. Sources informed Dawn that under the agreement, Corps V was bound to develop the venue within one year. The adoption was initially for 10 years, with the provision of a further 10-year extension granted upon the request of Corps V.
However, all that can be seen at the moment is the tall grass covering the area. Let alone initiating any development work, Corps V has not even submitted the development plan to the city government for approval. Meanwhile, despite the fact that the terms of the agreement have been violated, the city government has not yet retrieved possession from Corps V.
Sources told Dawn that the agreement clearly stated that “the development of the adopted venue shall be completed within a maximum period of one year from the date of this agreement (Aug 23, 2005).” It further said that “the CDGK (City District Government Karachi) shall have the right to resume the adopted venue if the same is not maintained properly or has been put for use other than the allowed/approved or for breach of any of the terms and conditions of this agreement under due process of law and natural justice.”
When the delays in the development of the park were investigated by this newspaper last year, Col Idrees of the Inter Services Public Relations, the relevant army department in this regard, had said that the plan to develop the polo ground had been shelved. When approached by Dawn this time, however, he declined to comment on the issue.
Conversion of land feared
The only ‘development’ work undertaken by Corps V is a large sign saying ‘Karachi Polo Club’ that has recently replaced the old signboard proclaiming the site to be that of the hippodrome.
Sources said the boards had been changed not merely because two years had elapsed, but because reports carried in the media last year had underscored the fact that no development work was being carried out. It was possible that Corps V feared that the land may be recovered by the city government and had therefore erected the new signboard.
Under normal circumstances, said sources, the city government would by now have cancelled the adoption agreement because of the adopter’s failure to meet the terms and conditions, and resumed control of the land. In this case, however, it appeared that the city government lacked the courage to challenge the army.
The area’s residents expressed the fear that Corps V was delaying the implementation of the agreement in the hope that once sufficient time had passed, people would forget that the land had been reserved for a public park and would not raise objections when a commercial/residential complex was raised on the spot. They said that the adopter had probably not intended to develop a polo ground in the first place. Sources pointed out that since the city government was hesitating from approaching Corps V to retrieve control of the land, it was too much to expect that it would resist any move if the land were converted for residential or commercial use.
Cheating the general public
Talking to Dawn, sources further criticised the fact that the conversion of the park into a polo ground had been allowed in the first place. They pointed out that polo was a game of the elite and was therefore played only by the rich who could afford to own horses etc. In giving the use of the park to only a handful of people, therefore, the vast majority of the area’s residents had been robbed of access to an open space and the general public had been cheated.
They also pointed out another anomaly: a few years ago, the racecourse that used to be located a couple of kilometres from the site was relocated to the outskirts of the city with the intention to develop a park on the area formerly occupied by the racecourse. Here, however, land reserved for a public park had been handed over for conversion into a polo ground that could only be used by very few people. Corps V could easily have established a polo ground on the outskirts of the city, near the newly-established racecourse, they commented.
The sources reminded Dawn that earlier, some people used to play polo at the site where Clifton’s Bagh Ibn-i-Qasim is now located. When work started on developing the park, the city government had asked the polo players to find another venue. Therefore, said the sources, the players persuaded Corps V to adopt a park in the same locality and develop it as a polo ground.
The land in question was also selected for the use of the US Counsel-General, which has to move from its current premises on Abdullah Haroon Road because of the public inconvenience caused by its security concerns. However, Clifton residents staged a demonstration against the relocation and the US Counsel-General was forced to choose another site.
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