KARACHI: The name of the place from where reports are emerging about demolition of 40 to 50 houses of Christians, to make way for the Malir Expressway, is said to be Gulshan-i-Maryam. No one, if asked for directions around Memon Goth in Malir, would be familiar with this place but when if asked about location of the Christian settlement, anyone would direct you to head up to Jam Kando and take the little broken road on the right after passing the dried river’s bridge.

It was a long and bumpy ride. When the language of the locals changes from Balochi to Punjabi, you have the feeling that you are finally on the right track. Three young men riding a motorcycle and carrying petrol in two-and-a-half-litre cold drink bottles offered to take us to the place. And then came into view the work of the bulldozers, the razed houses, the piles of bricks and concrete from toppled walls and smashed roofs. The houses that were still standing had markings in red on their outer walls.

‘We have lease papers’

“We were told that ours is an illegal colony. But we have lease papers issued to us in 2011,” said Ruth, a resident of the area whose own home, which her family had moved in about a year ago, was intact. “Yes, it was saved after we all came out to raise a hue and cry. But for how long, I wonder,” she said.

Sindh govt justifies demolition by declaring Christian community’s Gulshan-i-Maryam an illegal settlement

Patras, a neighbourhood elder, said that those who came to demolish their houses on Jan 20 turned up without any prior notice. “They said they were to clear the area to make way for a big road or expressway, and started bulldozing all the under-construction structures,” he said.

The Malir Expressway, an ambitious plan, is said to connect DHA City, Bahria Town, etc, to the main city, in particular the DHA and Clifton areas.

Patras said that everyone in Gulshan-i-Maryam came out of their small homes when they heard the noise of the houses being bulldozed. “Somehow that had an impact. Then we were told to go back to our houses for they won’t demolish any houses in which people lived. They also warned us against constructing and new houses here,” he said.

“I was one of the first people to have moved here 12 years ago. At the time, we paid Rs50,000 each for a 120-yard plot and built our small houses. Now these unfortunate folk whose under-construction houses were demolished had already spent around Rs100,000 to Rs200,000 on their property,” he shared.

When asked why they were living so far away from the city, Aslam Fauji, another old resident, said that this was what they could afford. “We are poor people; we can’t afford to have dwellings in the city. We work hard but only have this jungle to call our settlement. For work, we travel the long distance to the main city every day in the absence of any transport means in this middle of nowhere. There is not even a petrol pump anywhere nearby and we buy open petrol for our motorcycles,” he said.

Expressway is ‘not for poor’

Asked if the Malir Expressway would also benefit them, Patras shrugged and smiled sadly. “They are out to remove us from here to build the expressway, so how will it benefit us when we are not even here? It’s a catch-22 situation. This is for the posh localities coming up here, not for us poor folk,” he said.

Elizabeth, another resident, said that even though the bulldozers are gone now, they all feel very insecure. “The demolition took place over two days on Jan 20 and 21 under the supervision of two police mobiles. Then they said that they will come again on Jan 25. We were prepared to lie down before the bulldozers if they turned towards our homes this time. None of us went to work that day and intended to put up a joint front,” she said.

“Thankfully, they didn’t do anything other than marking all our houses. They spared our church,” she said gesturing towards a small St Mary’s Catholic church. “But are all of these houses in their way? Why else would they mark them all?”

Safia, another resident, said that there were some 150 houses that had been constructed in Gulshan-i-Maryam by the poor Christian community that lived there.

“Gulshan-i-Maryam had no proper roads, no water lines, no sewerage lines, no power, no gas. For cooking, we burn the branches of wild plantation. Other than our houses that were constructed a few years ago, there are also around 300 little under-construction houses here, several of which were razed last week. Our people had saved up, little by little, to only have a roof over our heads but that, too, might be taken away from us now,” she said sadly.

Sindh govt’s version

When contacted for comment on the issue, a spokesperson for the Sindh chief minister informed Dawn that the residents of Gulshan-i-Maryam were illegal squatters.

“Had they been living on legal land leased out to them, they would have received proper letters letting them know about government’s plans for the expressway,” he said.

“The government doesn’t send out bulldozers to raze legal property. These people seem to be victims of the land mafia that sold them unoccupied land against some money. The government will see what can be done for them,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2021