KARACHI: The gloves are coming off as the administration and staff of The Karachi Grammar School (KGS), parents and residents of the Fifth Avenue Neighbourhood Society (FANS) took to the streets on Tuesday against the commercialisation of Khayaban-e-Saadi.
The protesters began gathering outside the KGS college section around 3:30 pm, holding placards that read “Zero tolerance for compromising children’s safety”, “Keep school safe, keep high rises away” and “Don’t be mean, go green”. They started their march, chanting “Ehtejaj, Ehtejaj” (protest, protest), to the proposed construction site of a commercial building a few metres away.
House No. F-8, with a plaque saying Kanwal House at its gate, is currently believed to be occupied by M Abid Lakhani. The plot is the proposed site for Noman Castello, a commercial 20-storey project by Noman Builders. The project has received a great deal of flak from the KGS staff and its surrounding residents, who claim that the construction of the office building poses not only a high security risk but will also create traffic congestion, pollution and jeopardise the value of the real estate.
“According to our calculations, the building will attract around 10,000 cars to the area. That is estimating about 20 cars per office for each of the 350 offices and/or shops and another few thousand for visitors,” said Khayam Hussain, the FANS general secretary.
For the parents of KGS students, however, the stakes are their children’s safety. “The government needs to establish safe zones for schools,” said Laila Bukhari. “The authorities cannot afford to take ad-hoc decisions and commercialise streets without taking all stakeholders on board.”
Bukhari insisted that the fight was not just about KGS parents but any parent would feel the same about their child’s safety. “It is the government’s responsibility to protect the innocent.”
Protecting the rally were six police vans and 80 policemen under the supervision of SHO Boat Basin Nazeer Muhammad. “We received a letter on October 8 from KGS saying they planned a short protest on the service lane parallel to Khayaban-e-Saadi and needed protection,” he said.
During the rally, drum beats grew louder as the protesters chanted “Rok do, rok do, commercial area rok do”, [stop the commercial area] while thumping their placards on the road in front of Plot F-8.
“This is not just a school area. It’s also [a] residential [one],” said Humma Ahmed, the former executive editor of The News and a FANS member. “Worldwide, there is an erosion of resident rights by commercialisation by stealth. This area also has consulates nearby. Look at how the [Abdullah Shah Ghazi] mazaar was attacked. Allowing a commercial building here will just give easier access to such targets,” she argued.
“Gulf Way Shopping Mall is just a two-storey building and look at the problems they have with traffic and security. This is a proposed 20-storey project and will take three years. By then, this road will become a mini Sharae Faisal,” said Imran Khalil, a parent.
“Next, they will want to come and break my house down and build there,” complained another parent, Umair Zuberi. “This is just going to set a bad precedent,” added Hussain Sultan, claiming that there are at least three more plots at Khayaban-e-Roomi whose building plans have been approved without any consultation with stakeholders.
Imran Sabir, the environmental assessment incharge at Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa), explains that the commercialisation process for any plot or lane is fairly simple. “Once a site is marked for a project, a notice is issued for a public hearing within 30 days.”
For large projects, such as Noman Castello, an environmental impact assessment study is conducted to present at the hearing which is chaired by the Sepa director-general. All parties, their concerns and reservations are heard after which an eight- to 10-member panel of experts is constituted to evaluate the situation and present its analysis in 30 days.
The project’s EIA has been completed and will be heard during the public hearing scheduled for October 14 at 10 am at The Regent Plaza. After the EIA was completed, parents and the KGS staff had criticised that the assessment was extremely biased.
Interestingly, however, Sabir claims that 28 roads in Karachi have been commercialised recently without Sepa’s knowledge and thus, without any environmental approval.
Sepa’s public relations officer Mujtaba Baig confirmed that they have received written complaints from the school, the parents, as well as FANS which will be taken into consideration when finalising the decision.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 13th, 2010.
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