KARACHI, Jan 27: The land mafia operating in the city is once again active, eyeing the 480- acre Gutter Baghicha in the former district west.

By disposing of the rest of the amenity land to builders for residential and commercial purposes, plans are there to reduce the municipal park area to 160 acres only.

Spread over 1,017 acres initially, the land was called “Oasis in the desert” in the Karachi Handbook published in 1913. However, most of its open tract was gradually encroached upon after the influx of refugees. With the passage of time, over half a dozen settlements had been established here while successive governments remained unable to put curbs on encroachment.

Half of the land that had been left unaffected by encroachers was then planned to be used for a park, which was to serve as lungs for the residents of densely populated Trans-Lyari localities as declared by subsequent rulers, including President Pervez Musharraf. He had pledged in a public address at the mausoleum of the Quaid-i-Azam before the April 2000 referendum that the Gutter Baghicha would be developed as a beautiful garden.

Although some non-government organisations are trying to get the plan materialized some vested interests taking advantage of the caretaker set-up in the province have reportedly managed to rope in all the functionaries supposed to safeguard public interest and carry out orders of the president and the chief executives of the federal and provincial governments.

In sheer disregard to the clear directives of President Pervez Musharraf to the provincial and city governments the builders had reportedly made general powers of attorney and agreement papers on the basis of previous allotments which were ordered to be cancelled by the previous governments.

According to Nisar Ahmad, a spokesman for the Karachi NGOs’ Alliance, a meeting was held on January 18 last year at the Governor’s House which was attended by chief secretary, the chairman of the Anti-Corruption Establishment and other officials concerned including ex-employee Shafi Ansari who was accused in an FIR (51/2000) registered under Sections 420/468/471/34 PPC read with Section 5(2) of Act–II, 1947.

He alleged that the ACE functionaries in the meeting were directed to quash the inquiry report which declared Shafi Ansari involved in illegal allotment. He pointed out that Mr Ansari was then absolved from the corruption charges in a rewritten report.

Making an impatient appeal to caretaker Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro, Nisar Hussain asked for ordering an impartial inquiry to save the lungs of the congested old city and severely punished those found involved in disposing of precious amenity plot to the greedy builders. The copies of the appeal were also sent to caretaker chief minister, corps commander, chief secretary, other officials concerned, electronic and print media, as well as national and international NGOs.

In his appeal, he had recalled the commitment of the subsequent governments to protect the Gutter Baghicha and turn it into a recreational park.

Housing society

In 1983, Mayor Abdul Sattar Afghani had fixed a grant of five million rupees to establish a sports village but the vested interests in the former Karachi Municipal Corporation allowed the grant to lapse. And the issue went into a dormant till 1993 when KMC Officers’ Cooperative Society applied for 200 acres for housing their officers. A 99-year lease for the housing society was then approved in violation of Section 45 of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, 1979.

However, former Chief Secretary Syed Sardar Ahmad observed that it would be unfair to convert the open park/farm into a housing society when the summary was moved for final approval by the chief minister.Instead of sending this summary to the chief minister, local government department moved another summary to the chief minister, bypassing the chief secretary this time.

Stay order

The NGO Shehri-CBE filed human rights case under Article 184(3) of the Constitution in the Supreme Court against conversion of the “Gutter Baghicha” amenity land to industrial, residential, and commercial purposes.

The Supreme Court restrained the KMC or any other transferee from transferring or selling any part of the Baghicha land. The Sindh government was also restrained from granting approval to the illegal KMC resolution.

In 1994, former Local Government Secretary Agha Shahabuddin floated a detailed summary giving all facts of the KMC Officers’ Cooperative Housing Society scam and recommended that court’s decision on the matter be awaited; KMC-OCHS leases be cancelled; proceeding be initiated against KMC Commissioner Allauddin Sabir, senior director (land) Tanveer Naqvi; and the Sindh government’s approval to the scheme be withdrawn.

Subsequently, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ordered the KMC to cancel illegal allotment of 200 acres to the society, directed KMC administrator Fahim Zaman to withdraw earlier order and declared that Gutter Baghicha land should be used as a recreational park.

Sub-leases continued

However, about 415 sub-leases were issued by the KMC-OCHS, from August 1994 to October 1997, flouting orders of the local government secretary and the then chief secretary Syed Sardar Ahmad and in violation of the stay order of the Supreme Court.

In March 2000, an FIR was registered by Anti-Corruption Establishment under Section 218/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 5(2) of Act-II, 1947 against 18 officials for illegal allotment of 8.3 acres of Gutter Baghicha amenity land to private factory owners.

In October 2001, City Nazim Niamatullah Khan at a seminar had declared that Gutter Baghicha would become a model modern park so that residents of Trans-Lyari localities could have open space for healthy activities.

Despite all declarations and inquiries conducted into illegal allotments during the last two decades, the amenity land has squeezed to a few hundred acres now and the issue still remains unsettled. Immediate start of a fast-paced work on the park project seemed to be a durable solution to put a check on the unstopped encroachment.