
KARACHI, PAKISTAN:
Heavy rains are just around the corner. The whole DHA is dug up like bunkers in a battleground. A stormwater drain project was launched in mid-September 2022, which is moving at a snail’s pace unmindful of the havoc and danger lurking in this so-called posh locality of Karachi. The residents have been virtually incarcerated in their homes. Their access to their residences is like a rah-e-pulsiraat (metaphorically a very dangerous path).
In 2009, DHA levied an arbitrary and coercive refurbishment charge of Rs75,000 per house when the first stormwater drains were completed. They run in the middle of the road with purposeless slits at regular intervals not meant to allow any intake of stormwater but fully capable of damaging the tyres of the vehicles plying above. The design was absurd and was further made inoperative by not keeping the slits clean and receptive to rainwater. Most residents believe that even the ongoing so-called mega project will be a failure yet again. The reason is that a proper outflow of water from the stormwater drainage system is missing in the jigsaw puzzle. However, the taste of the pudding is in its eating. Unfortunately, it cannot be tested this season.
DHA is planning to extract a hefty sum of Rs250,000 from the property owners for another grand failure. Our legal system is not supportive of taking such public interest matters for adjudication under Article 199 of the Constitution. In the ongoing fiasco in DHA, the Cantonment Board Clifton senselessly started relaying Khayaban-e-Hafiz, a main arterial road, for reasons best known to them. The dilemma readily brings a verse from Akbar Allahabadi to mind: Barbad gulistan karnay ko bus ek hi ullu kafi tha; Har shakh pe ullo baitha hai anjam e gulistan kya hoga.
Haroon Rashid Siddiqi
Karachi
Published in The Express Tribune, May 2nd, 2023.
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