KARACHI: On Monday there’s no activity on the ground as had been the case until a few days ago at the construction site for the new Convent of Jesus and Mary (CJM) campus on main Khayaban-i-Saadi, Block 5, Clifton.

An old and rusted gate swings in the hot dusty air. A man with a hose pipe in the horse paddock behind it tries to settle the dust by sprinkling water over it. When asked what happened to the people working at the site a few days ago, he only shakes his head. “I don’t know. They were all there one day and then they were gone the next,” he said.

A few squatters in a nearby hut also had similar things to report. “There was a container, a digger and a few people who started work over there,” one of them pointed to the area touching the service road on main Khayaban-i-Saadi, next to the kindergarten section of another very well-known elite English-medium school.

“But no sooner had they started work they stopped all activity, wrapped up the work and disappeared,” he added.

A lone person at the water pump house on the same plot also said he didn’t know what happened. “Yes, there was something going on and I was expecting more people, equipment and noise but then everyone left. It happened within a span of two or three days in the beginning of this month,” he said.

On April 25, the Chief Minister of Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah performed the groundbreaking of the new CJM campus at the site, also known as the Clifton Polo Ground or plot no ST-21. At the time he shared his happiness to be performing the ground-breaking of the school where Benazir Bhutto had received her early education. “This school has earned esteem in this country,” he had said, while appreciating the efforts of its principal Sister Mary Langan, headmistress Sister Berchmans Conway, and the rest of the team in maintaining an excellent standard of education.

It is mind-boggling as to why the construction work stopped so suddenly and mysteriously. Recent news in the electronic media suggested the existence of an influential person stepping in to stop the work as he has his own heart set on the land.

Sources within CJM claim the school has all the necessary documents and permission for the construction of the new campus from the Karachi Development Authority (KDA), Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) and the Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC). They even tried to reach out to all three but no good has come of it as yet.

CM House’s view

According to a clarification issued by the CM House on the matter, plot no. ST-21 was subdivided by KDA in 1986. “The KDA allotted 39,344.62 square yards to the Civil Aviation Authority [CAA] for the construction of a squash complex while the remaining part of the plot measuring 40,000 square yards which was assigned the new number 21-B was reserved for a park,” reads the statement.

“The CAA in 2012 agreed to give 5,000 square yards out of its 39,344.62 square yards plot as a gift to the CJM School for educational purposes. The gift declaration was signed and executed between CAA and CJM School in May 2012,” it further said.

“In 2013, an agreement was signed between Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) and KGS [Karachi Grammar School] whereby the area reserved for the park was assigned to KGS under KMC’s adopt a park policy.

“The records of KDA and KMC show that various plans prepared in 1985, 2012 and 2013 assign different locations to the site allocated to CAA and the site reserved for the park on the said plot, which is the reason for the present dispute between CJM and KGS.

“The office of the chief secretary has taken notice of the situation and has ordered an inquiry to ascertain the facts from the relevant record based on which the sites will be demarcated for the park and the school as per the correct interpretation of the master plan,” the statement concluded.

The area also made news in 2010 when there had been talk about the construction of a commercial high-rise building at the site. At the time there was a huge protest staged there by hundreds of parents whose children studied at KGS against the proposed construction of the building.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2018