TO open, an extract from the Gazetteer of the Province of Sind, B Volume I, 1919, Karachi District (p.37), chapter headed ‘Education’ : “The Karachi Narayan Jagarnath (NJ) High School was the first government school established in Sindh. It was opened in October 1855 with 68 boys.

The building, which was situated at the junction of the Bandar and Mission Roads..... was superseded in 1876 by the present buildings, which have cost (inclusive of additions in 1896 and 1900) Rs63,294 and provide accommodation for 17 classes.

The number on the rolls in March 1916 was 477, of whom 350 were Hindus, 32 Brahmins, 10 Jains, 12 Mussalmans, 66 Parsis and seven Indian Jews.... Mr Narayan Jagarnath, in whose honour the school was named, was one of those educated Bombay men with whose help the initial difficulties of introducing education in the province in which neither books nor teachers existed, was successfully overcome.”

Now, who was it who said that a few cannot change the destiny of many? The 12 (2.5 per cent of the total of 477) were the forefathers of the now 170 millions who inhabit the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Jamshed Nusserwanjee Mehta was elected a councilor of Karachi in 1918, and in 1922 elected president of the Council. He became the first mayor of the city in 1933 when the Karachi Municipal Corporation was formed.

On his retirement in 1937 Sir Montagu de Pomeroy Webb, doyen of Karachi’s British community, recorded : ‘I consider that Jamshed has done greater and better work for Karachi – for its citizens and the people of Sind – than any other individual private citizen of this capital whom I can remember. His sacrifices of time, money, strength and peace of mind have been unequalled and wholly admirable. The city owes him an immeasurable debt of gratitude which I hope that each and every community will ungrudgingly recognise’.”

I hope his young successor, Mustapha Kamal, is reading this. It may further inspire him.

Now to the subject of this column, Webb ground, a five-acre playing field in Tunisia Lines, off Sharea Faisal. Long used, for close to 80 years, as an institutional sports field by the Karachi Grammar School, it was integrated into the Lines Area Redevelopment Scheme in the mid-1980s and used as a playground for the neighbourhood housing some 200,000 residents.

In disregard of all that is proper, this amenity plot was leased to the Army Welfare Trust (why?) which, in further disregard of what is proper, correct and lawful, has sub-leased it to a concern known as Makro-Habib (why?) which intends to build on it a gigantic ‘Cash & Carry’ store. The local residents, whose children have been deprived of an open playing field where they play, lounge around, sleep and enjoy ‘lung-space’, have plans to challenge this illicit conversion in court.

The Army Welfare Trust and Makro-Habib stand guilty of illegal commercialisation of a five-acre open space. It emerges that Makro-Habib is an old hand at the conversion of amenity spaces.

A number of residents of Model Town Society in Lahore have been battling in the Lahore High Court for the past year over the ‘commercialisation’ by Makro-Habib of 80 kanals (10 acres) of a garden plot in their society.

Quoted hereunder is an excerpt from the November 11, 2006, observations of the learned single judge, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, in the judgment handed down in the writ petition dealing with the issue:

“Similarly, it was also stressed very vehemently that the proposed project constitutes economic growth and will bring financial benefit to the country, city and the locality. In this behalf, suffice it to say that no doubt foreign investment is to be encouraged but foreign investors are not above the law and must conform to laws of the land and must necessarily also exhibit sensitivity to the rights and privileges of the inhabitants of the area. The learned counsel for the petitioner has rightly drawn the distinction between growth and development. The two concepts are not synonymous and all growth must be measured against the collateral damage accrued thereby. Even otherwise, growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell.”

History will record the growth of various forms of ‘cancer’ in our society : the conversion of parks and playgrounds, the construction of grandiose projects on the remaining open spaces and beaches, the attempts to establish a ‘world-class city’ in Karachi, a city in which over half its population resides in katchi abadis, where a polluted and inadequate water supply is distributed, where 400 million gallons per day of raw sewage is dumped into the sea.

On June 24, the press informed us that Justice M Bilal Khan of the Lahore High Court referred to the Chief Justice to fix before another bench two petitions challenging the construction of the Makro Cash and Carry Store in Model Town on an amenity plot. The court had already stayed the construction.

The president of the Model Town Residents’ Association, Amer Bakht Azam, and Dr Anis Alam and Zafar Masood, residents of an adjoining locality, submitted that an amenity plot could not be converted into a commercial area, as this would violate the fundamental rights of the petitioners. They claimed that the land was an open space for the residents and its commercial use would not only cause traffic problems but also inflict health hazards on the citizens.

Through the columns of this newspaper, I address a letter to our Governor, Dr Ishrat ul Ebad, with the hope that he will come to the aid of just a few of his beleaguered citizens who inhabit the vast and ever-growing city of Karachi :

“Dear Governor : The unlawful commercialisation of the sole playground in Lines Area – apropos our telephone conversation of July 13.

“The NGO Shehri asked me to meet some hundred residents of the Lines Area who were up in arms and protesting against the capture by the Army Welfare Trust and Makro-Habib of Webb Ground, a five-acre playing field in their neighbourhood that I had written about in my column of February 18, 2007. I agreed to meet two representatives on July 12 — former Union Council Nazim, Mehfooz Ul Nabi Khan and Lines Area Sports Association Secretary, Arshad Ali Jan.

“They inform me that up to 2002 Webb Ground was used as a playing field for children and sportspeople of the area, and as an Eidgah twice a year. It is shown as a playground in layouts of the Lines Area Redevelopment Project (KDA Scheme No 35) and on maps of the Military Estates Officer.

“In December 2002, for reasons unknown (money? scam?), the playground was leased to the Army Welfare Trust (AWT) for commercial purposes. AWT in turn sub-leased it in 2006 to Makro-Habib for the construction of a 'Cash & Carry Store', which construction is underway at the site. Such commercial use of a public amenity plot, especially in a deprived and poor locality, is criminal.

“The area residents have collected Rs.30,000 to file a writ in the high court. It is doubtful that such meagre resources will enable them to achieve much. Additional funds are difficult to raise as many of those concerned seem to be apprehensive of the area’s MQM activists.

“May I request that you intervene and ensure that the playground is restored for the beneficial use of the thousands of Lines Area residents? They are eager to come and explain the problem to you at your convenience. Enclosed are copies of plans/drawings and relevant newspaper cuttings.

“With my best wishes to you for your continued sincere efforts to do good for the people of this province and city......”

arfc@cyber.net.pk