For Orangi Pilot Project workers, police have only one advice: leave the country

Social activists criticise law enforcers of failing to catch Perween Rahman's killers

KARACHI: It's best for you to leave the country, a high-ranking police officer advised the officials of the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) when they complained about receiving threats.

The workers at OPP have been threatened allegedly by the same people who shot dead its director, Perween Rahman, in March 2013. The social activists shared this information at Karachi Press Club as they criticised the attitude of the police and were saddened over the state's failure to provide protection.

"In other words, the police were telling us that they cannot do anything to protect us," said the executive director of Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, Karamat Ali. "We want to tell the Sindh government and the police that they are our servants and they get money from our taxes. To provide security, is their responsibility."

Ali pointed out that these threats have forced OPP's current director Anwar Rashid, who took the reins after Rahman, to leave Karachi. Moreover, two unidentified men paid a visit to Rahman's mother and misbehaved with her and caretaker. They wanted information on the whereabouts of Rahman's sister and Rashid, he added.  It is the state's responsibility to protect the lives and properties of citizens, said Ali. "Before Perween's murder, she received threats that were recorded but nothing was done about it," he pointed out.

No backing out

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) chairperson Zohra Yusuf said that they will not withdraw Rahman's murder case. "All those who are giving us threats, I want to tell them that we will not take back the case, and keep on fighting till we get justice."

The civil society had gone to the Supreme Court and demanded fresh inquiry into Rahman's murder. Yusuf said the government should take these threats very seriously. In the last two years, three prominent women, Rahman, Zahra Shahid and Sabeen Mahmud have been gunned down, she pointed out, saying that the space for people is being reduced.

Mapping section

While speaking about the hurdles being faced by the OPP to function properly, urban planner Arif Hasan said that they had to shift their mapping section from Orangi to the Urban Resource Centre in the wake of threats. "After an attack on OPP's Saleemuddin, we decided that we can't work in Orangi," he admitted.

The mapping section is working on land recording and surveys. Hasan said that after Rahman's death, they continued working on documenting goths [unplanned settlements] that were forcibly occupied and grabbed but are now working from their office in the URC. "This [kind of] work cannot be done away from the katchi abadi and people ask us why we don't visit," said Hasan. "We wanted to shift the mapping section back but the threats came again." The activists feel that the threats are being issued to them by those who are against the documentation of the land, but said that it is the work of the police and judiciary to find that out.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2015.