THE demolition saga started with the advent of our young city Nazim, Mustapha Kamal, a would-be Kamal Ataturk, with a zeal to transform Karachi into a rival of any other capital of the world (and why not?).

He spotted an ‘open space’ and disregarding the fact that it was an established park with a great deal of history behind it, decided that it was a redundant ‘open space’ fit to be converted into a car park, and to make it self-supporting shops would be built on part of it, and it would be called a ‘plaza.’.

So, unthinkingly, without any sense of either environmental demands or of the history of the city, he decided to rid the park of its trees, bulldoze it, and present to the city some much needed parking space in the centre of Saddar. Five structures known as ‘car parking plazas’ were planned (if it’s not a shopping ‘plaza’ it is some other form of ‘plaza’ that blights the cities of this country), one of which was to be a ‘portion’ of Jehangir Park

Strange are the workings of our government, and even stranger the workings of the inter-governmental communications system. And wicked are the ways of those who are out to make money from so-called ‘development.’

The on-going destruction of Jehangir Park was first brought to my notice by a group of associations with unpronounceable, unintelligible names under the guise of do-gooders, members of which I subsequently learnt had already encroached upon the park and had designs for further encroachment. When the chopping of the park trees started they approached me for help to stop the conversion.

Unaware of their far-from-altruistic motives I told them that we would have to go to court and asked them how much they were willing to contribute. That was the last I heard of them. They evaporated. Their intention was to up their encroachment and illegally and unlawfully construct/extend a mosque/madressah which stands on a portion of its grounds.

Now, government being government, the Sindh government, in the person of Chief Secretary Fazlur Rahman, was bound to follow red tape, so he could do nothing when informed of the city nazim’s plans and of the commencement of the tree-chopping operation in the park. The matter was brought to the notice of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, an environmentalist at heart, and taking suo motu action he ordered that the status quo be maintained, that no further trees be chopped, and the park be preserved.

The letter from the Supreme Court registrar conveying the Chief Justice’s orders was addressed to Fazlur Rahman, who, on a mandatory red tape track, passed it on to his number two who was instructed to instruct the city nazim accordingly. Rather than merely saying ‘stop’ and thus bring an immediate halt to operations, he approached the matter through the ‘regular channels’ and ordered further necessary action — that is, inform the ‘concerned authorities,’ and save what trees remain. So it all happened in its own sweet time.

Meanwhile, the matter came up before the Supreme Court (Suo Motu Case No.3 of 2006, ‘Cutting down of Trees in Jehangir Park, Saddar, Karachi’) and all was finally resolved.

To quote from the order handed down on April 5, 2006, by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, sitting with his Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Syed Jamshed Ali (which should be read by many more than will read it) :

“In pursuance of notice dated 27.3.2006, Manzoor Ahmed, EDO (Law) the city government, Karachi, appeared and filed following statement on behalf of the city district government, Karachi.

The city district government has already written a letter to the Chief Secretary, Government of Sindh... CDGK has dropped the project for construction of parking facility on a portion of Jehangir Park due to serious reservations from the NGOs.

“The above statement if accompanied by another letter (copy of which has been endorsed to the Chief Secretary, Sindh, by the city district government, Karachi)... The city government had planned for development of multi-storied car parking plazas in various potential locations in the city in view of the serious traffic congestion being observed in the CBD area ... In view of the serious reservations from NGOs and the orders passed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of Pakistan in Suo Motu Case No,03 of 2006 the City District Government has dropped the project for construction of a parking facility on a portion of Jehangir Park.

“The representatives of the City District Government explained that a portion of the Jehangir Park was ear-marked for the purpose of construction of a multi-storied car parking plaza. However, in view of the order of this court and the objections raised by other non-governmental organisations, the city district government had decided to drop the project for construction of a car parking plaza.

“Mr Naeem-ur-Rahman appeared and stated that the park is being utilised since 1893 as a public place, therefore the city district government had no lawful authority to convert the same for commercial purposes. Reliance was placed by him on a judgment of this court in (CP No.36 of 2005) ‘Moulvi Iqbal Haider vs Capital Development Authority etc.’

He further stated that the directions be issued to the city district government for restoring the status of the park to its original position and it should be developed because the same is meant for public welfare as the general public uses the same from time to time.

“After having gone through the judgment relied upon by him and on perusing the statement filed on behalf of the city district government, we direct that although the project has been abandoned for the reasons mentioned in the statement, the city government is restrained from converting the same in future to any other use save in accordance with the law. However, in terms of the judgment which has been relied upon, the city district government is ordered to restore the status of the public park and develop the same accordingly.”

We will always be beset by a majority of philistines with long dangling tails. The minority of thinking beings will have to base their trust and survive on faith, hope and charity.