ON August 11, 1947, Mohammad Ali Jinnah spoke to the members of his country's first Constituent Assembly. His first observation: "You will no doubt agree with me that the first duty of a government is to maintain law and order so that the life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects are fully protected by the state."

Fifty-four years later this 'duty' remains unfulfilled. Citizens of this country are gunned down in the streets merely because of their religious beliefs. Most properties are unprotected by the law and its agents.

There actually is no law, no order. And now, yet again, since the writ of the law cannot be effectively implemented, the government of the province of Sindh has decided to change the law in much the same way as is done in the kingdom of Id. Says the King to his people: "Your beloved King has eliminated crime in city parks." "How?" ask the people. "I have legalized mugging," explains the king.

In Karachi, the King of Sindh tells us: "The 260-odd buildings, illegally and unlawfully constructed, cannot be regularized under the present law. So, we will change the law."

In my column last Sunday I wrote about the building mafia and how it has managed to 'persuade' the Sindh government into believing that if the illegally constructed buildings are legalized the building industry in Karachi will be revived. How? one may ask.

A recent survey has it that there are at present approximately 100,000 flats built by speculators which are lying vacant awaiting buyers, and that there are approximately 200,000 plots of all sizes and shapes which have been bought but not yet built upon.

On July 24, the Sindh cabinet in its finite wisdom decided to promulgate an ordinance "To further amend the Sindh Building Control Ordinance, 1979." The ordinance reads:

"Now therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 8 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Governor of Sindh is pleased to make and promulgate the following ordinance:

"(i) This Ordinance may be called the Sindh Buildings Control Ordinance, 2001. (ii) It shall come into force at once."Sub-section (1-A) of Section 19 [SBCO 1979] is hereby substituted with the following amendments for a period of twelve (12) months commencing from the date of promulgation of this Ordinance.

" 'The Authority or any person authorized by it in this behalf may compound any offence under this ordinance, including change of land use on deposit of prescribed composition fee ranging from 200 per cent to 300 per cent of the existing rate of composition and other necessary fees as approved by the Authority, depending upon the socio-economic conditions of different localities, on production of a certificate of structural stability duly verified by a Licensed Structural Engineer, on such terms and conditions as prescribed, except the buildings which have environmentally degrading activities such as manufacturing, storage of dangerous/inflammable materials, or caters to the service sector to transport, conversion of parking spaces to other uses until such spaces are restored to their original function, the reservation of road widening scheme and violation of property line or any hazardous use.'

"Proviso of sub-section (1-A) of Section 19 of SBCO 1979 is hereby substituted with [the] following new proviso:

" 'Provided that building works carried out in violation of Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulations and rules framed thereunder in respect of foot print, compulsory open space, excess covered area and projection of the building shall be compounded subject to realization of composition fee enhanced by 400 per cent from existing rate of composition and other necessary fees as approved by the Authority if the deviation does not exceed beyond 20 per cent of the permissible limit on the terms and conditions as prescribed by the Authority.' "

This last paragraph of the ordnance in effect permits rules to be broken purposefully and with impunity to the extent of 20 percent. Senseless?

This was followed by a letter dated July 28 addressed to those concerned (e.g., me as member of the KDA governing body and a member of the KBCA oversee committee) by Brigadier Zafar Ahmed Malik, an honest but misguided retired army officer who is the present Chief Controller of Buildings of the Karachi Building Control Authority, which informed us, inter alia:

"The presentation on regularization of buildings was given to the President of Pakistan on 2/6/2001 and thereafter on the instructions of the Honourable Governor of Sindh the draft notification for regularization was forwarded to the government on 15/6/2001.

"A presentation on the subject was given to the cabinet and Governor Sindh on 24/7/2001. I am glad to inform you that the cabinet approved the proposal...

"In this respect there are certain apprehensions which I would like to clarify that every building will be regularized. Cabinet has fixed certain parameters for regularization which will be strictly adhered to. Buildings which are structurally unsound or lacking adequate facilities for safety of the occupant will not be regularized. Citizen safety is of paramount importance.

"With the decision of the cabinet a long outstanding issue has been resolved. Before the cabinet decision the subject was deliberated at length at various forums for a considerable period. People were demanding it for a long time. [What sort of people? The intentional law breakers? Not a single written request is on the brigadier's files.] Majority were of the view that the problems should be resolved as per recommendation of the committee. We welcome the government decision and hope this will help in reviving the building industry. [How?] KBCA will make every effort to make the process as transparent as possible [Apart from the brigadier, most of the KBCA men are corrupt]. KBCA will publicize the matter through media TV/newspapers and also by holding public seminars/workshops for the awareness of the general public. The approval will be granted after due scrutiny and verification of stability of structure on payment of composition fee as approved by the cabinet."

This badly drafted ordnance will win the approbation of the vocal minority - five hundred illegal builders and a couple of hundred people who have invested in flats and shops. The silent majority - the millions of citizens of Karachi - have been safely ignored. It will be a long time before anyone realizes that the penalties being paid by the mafias who have broken the law is peanuts compared to the penalties being paid by the honest citizens of this unhappy metropolis who will have to live with the consequences of the 'regularization'.

For a small 'regularization' fee, anyone living in Karachi can have his residential house legally converted into a shopping mall, or a school, or an office, or a beauty salon, or a pakora parlour. Even if not required to be used as such today, the message is: convert it now while the going is good as an investment for the future. One does not have to worry about the restrictive covenants of the plot lease obtained from the KMC, or BOR, or KDA, or a cooperative society. 'Regularization' will override all other laws, contracts, leases, agreements, articles, and understandings.

In 1985, at a cost of $ 40 million, a master plan was made for the city of Karachi, but it was apparently never notified or legalized. The programme now is to borrow again, almost half of this amount from the World Bank and update the old plan. Why waste money? Why increase the debt of the citizens of this country? The 'regularization', ipso facto, makes the builders' mafia the new town planners. In its wisdom, the mafia will decide, within existing schemes such as Clifton, PECHS, Nazimabad, Garden East, etc, where urban renewal is to be carried out, which houses are to be changed into flat sites, which amenity spaces are to be converted into commercial plazas, how much open space is required within plots, how many floors are to be allowed, how the traffic will flow, on which public streets children will play cricket, and on which public streets they will play football.

Just take the case of a building on Sharea Faisal. The builder has constructed 250,000 square feet of excess unauthorized office space. How? By purposefully breaking the law? Or was it an oversight?

This builder breaker-of-the-law is now jumping with joy. He will, with the greatest delight, cough up Rs 300 per square foot as 'regularization' penalties, which will total Rs 75 million, an amount which to him is negligible.

A selling price of Rs 2,000 per square foot will leave him with a clear illicit profit of Rs 1,200 per square foot, which for the entire illegal 250,000 square feet totes up to a neat profit of Rs 300 million.

However, help is at hand. The governor of Sindh, the chairman of the Economic Development Council, is busy 'devolutionizing'. The vice-chairman of the EDC, the well-meaning Shahid Feroz whose imagination soars in the direction of grandiose visions, has been made aware that the ordinance, as drafted, is faulty in the extreme. He has promised to take up the matter with his chairman. To quote Shahid: " The draft ordnance needs to be refined ."