IN a section of the press last Sunday, on one of the pages dedicated to Karachi ‘doings’, was a photograph of City Nazim Mustafa Kamal ‘inspecting,’ i.e. standing waist-deep in the 2.8 kilometre storm water drain that is to run from Clifton Bridge to the Nahr-e-Khayyam. Our local technique and skills, when it comes to drainage is well known, so quite rightly and practically a Chinese firm of engineers has been brought in to construct this drain at a cost of Rs.180 million.

The aim is to prevent a recurrence of the events that coincided with and followed the three-inch rainfall at the end of July 2006. The work, said young go-getter Kamal Mustafa, “is being carried out with the vision and back-up from the Quaid-e-Tehrik, Altaf Hussain” (aka Rahbar-e-Tehrik, Pir Sahib of London Town, citizen of the United Kingdom safely residing in his adopted home – all praise be to him). And we, the affected of the storm drain area can rest in peace and tranquillity as young Kamal assures us that “cosmetic steps are not the Haqparast leadership’s cup of tea.”

The press did a good job during the Hamara Karachi festivities by printing daily photographs of various areas of Karachi inundated with sewage or with garbage – just to keep in its rightful place the reality of the perspective.

Whether we like it or not, President General Pervez Musharraf having willed it, for sometime to come we will have to succumb to the ‘vision’ of the Rahbar. There is one aspect of Karachi on which he should cast his eye – the fire trap that has enveloped the entire Saddar area. This is nothing new. It is a major life-threatening hazard that has been allowed to exist for years.

Six years ago, in 2001, a frightened resident of the Saddar area, Derrick Dean, together with eight others, filed a complaint with the provincial Ombudsman against the maladministration and corruption which infest the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) and the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). The complaint involved the hundreds of goldsmith industrial workshops which were operating in residential and commercial buildings in Saddar, posing a health and life hazard to all residents, visitors, business people, shopowners, shoppers and those who transit the area. Although these workshops are in flagrant violation of the zoning and building rules and environmental regulations, the statutory agencies had turned a blind eye – they couldn’t care less. It was pointed out that in 1994, in an explosion in a goldsmith’s workshop in ‘Mohammadi Centre’ of Bohri Bazaar, eight persons were burnt to death.

The complaint (No.POS/3312/ 2001/G) was admitted by Ombudsman Haziqul Khairi on June 20, 2001. SEPA, in their response, admitted to a grossly hazardous situation because of the toxic fumes emitted by the hundreds of goldsmith workshops and to the dangers to life and limb posed by the chemicals they use. The KBCA acknowledged in their response that the law dictated that these workshops be removed from the Saddar area and requested one month’s time in which to formulate a strategy for their relocation.

Ombudsman Khairi embarked on a survey of the area in August 2002, accompanied by the complainants and various government flunkies concerned. The furnaces, gas cylinders and other industrial equipment were all inspected. Again, in July 2003, together with Nazim Naimatullah Khan, Ombudsman Khairi found that “a large number of goldsmiths’ workshops were functioning in the area, emitting noxious smoke and that no fire-protection measures were being taken . . . . . . [these workshops] were found emitting harmful smoke and a foul smell of acid which appeared to have turned a residential-cum-commercial area into an industrial estate.”

Finally, in his findings of August 16, 2003, Ombudsman Khairi held “that the KBCA should have acted as a watch-dog for Town Planning Laws and hereby direct the Chief Controller of Buildings, KBCA, to ensure that all aforesaid illegal environment-degrading goldsmith workshops in Saddar Area, Karachi, are dismantled within a period of three months.

“I also direct the provincial secretary, ‘Environmental Alternate Energy’ and D.G. Sindh Environmental Protection Agency to monitor the progress of dismantling these workshops and submit a regular monthly report to me. The violators of law should be prosecuted in the court of Environmental Magistrates. They are also directed to ensure early functioning of the Provincial Environmental Tribunal so that the provisions of Sections 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997 are implemented in true letter and spirit.

“I also direct Chief City Police Officer (CCPO) and City Nazim to extend all assistance and help to these agencies under Cr.P.C./relevant laws on ‘Public Nuisance’.”

Quite naturally and true to form, the administration simply ignored the Ombudsman’s directives, and this despite constant reminders from residents of Saddar who, with fearful apprehension, saw new workshops opening up virtually every week.

When Yousaf Jamal took over as Ombudsman in mid-2004 he recommenced hearings on the non-implementation of his predecessors’ orders – the non-implementation involving the City District Government, the KBCA and the chief minister’s office that had made little attempt to identify alternative locations in industrial estates to which these polluting life-threatening goldsmith workshops could be relocated. What was the result? The Saddar jewellers took to the streets in protest, blocking roads, setting up camps, and directing appeals to Pir Altaf Hussain Sahib of London.

In December 2004, the Sindh governor’s Secretariat sent the complainants’ copy of an appeal dated September 15, 2004, filed by three goldsmiths’ welfare associations challenging the mohtasib’s August 2003 order. Derrick Dean, on behalf of the complainants, sent in a response informing the governor that the goldsmiths’ appeal was time barred (over 30 days after the ombudsman’s order), and pointed out the myriad laws being violated. Over a thousand workshops/furnaces were established in the Saddar area, posing a grave danger to the general populace and subjecting them to pollution and respiratory problems. He challenged Governor Ishratul Ebad’s assurance given to the ombudsman, promising his full cooperation to his institution which had resolved to “put administrative justice on a fast and speedy track” and “facilitate good governance” (Dawn, June 21 2003).

Nothing was done. The matter was ignored. The increasing number of goldsmiths in the Saddar area is easily identifiable by the heavy steel grilles on the windows of the floors above the jewelers’ shops and by the chimneys and large exhaust fans on the facades of buildings.

Almost four years down the line, where stands ‘good governance’? In the Hamara Karachi festivities, in the self-promoting press supplements trumpeting four years of good governance?

The fire-fighting ability of Karachi’s fire brigade is zero. Its equipment is obsolete, and now the Rahbar-e-Tehrik’s men are grabbing portions of fire station amenity plots on which to establish industrial plants (Dawn Jan 21, 2007). Will Pir Sahib’s man on the spot, Governor Ishratul Ebad, please awaken, and hold an enquiry before calamity strikes.