The DHA City juggernaut rolls on in the name of development
Ibrahim Kachelo’s run-in with the most powerful development authority in Pakistan happened in early October.
“I was returning from a check-up when I saw a group of people, accompanied by armed guards, putting up concrete DHA markers on and around my land,” says the farmer, his weather-beaten face flushed with indignation.
“I told them to leave, that I have a lease for it but they wouldn’t listen.” Furious, Mr Kachelo knocked down the markers in the DHA officials’ presence, the guards drew their guns and a brawl ensued.
The men retreated, but Mr Kachelo fears that was not the last he has seen of them.
His reaction stemmed not only from anger, but fear — fear that he will be driven from the land that has been in his family for generations. After all, he has seen it happen to others not too far from where his orchard is located along the northbound track of Superhighway in Malir, the largest of Karachi’s six districts.
On the opposite side, along the highway’s southbound track, the DHA City Karachi (DCK) housing project is under construction on 11,640 acres in deh Abdar and deh Khadeji (a deh is the smallest revenue unit for land in Sindh, similar to ‘mauza’ in the rest of the country).
Metalled roads and farmhouses have erased the pastureland where livestock belonging to the villagers used to graze, and the villages themselves have either been walled off or are in the process of being so as construction of the housing community proceeds.
(See box below) That they were able to retrieve some of their land from DHA is only because they filed a petition in the Sindh High Court and it ruled in their favour.
No comments:
Post a Comment