How will this bill benefit the citizens, and who will benefit from ‘commercialised’ amenity plots?
KARACHI: Our elected representatives have once again bowled a googly to the citizens without discussion, without debate, and without consulting public opinion — surreptitiously proposing “The Sindh Protection and Prohibition of Amenity Plots Bill 2009”.
This bill allows all public spaces which are part of the notified master plans of the city to be converted to any other use, e.g. a school plot to a commercial plaza, a sewage treatment plant to housing, a graveyard to a high-rise, a green belt for a political party office, a park for a martyrs’ colony, the list is endless. Where will our children play? Where will our schools and hospitals be established? Where will we bury our dead?
How will this bill benefit the citizens, and who will benefit from ‘commercialised’ amenity plots? Have our honourable MPAs discovered a new town-planning method that eliminates the need of amenity plots? If so, can they please share the methodology with ordinary citizens. The Supreme Court is waiting to hear from the Karachi city government on March 7, 2011, about what steps they have already taken to redeem the already misused amenity spaces. Can this bill defeat the directives of the Supreme Court?
The existing amenity spaces were planned over 30 years ago for a city population of five million. Karachi now has 18 million people. Aren’t the existing amenity spaces already inadequate?
This bill needs to be torn, burnt and flushed down. The proponents need to be asked what is the reason for this mischievous bill?
Shehri — Citizens for a Better Environment
Published in The Express Tribune, February 27th, 2011.
