CDGK operation flattens land and Bin Qasim TMA’s cabin scheme with it

City District Government Karachi accuses Bin Qasim Town Municipal Administration of starting scheme<br /> for ‘easy...

KARACHI: A land operation was conducted by the City District Government, Karachi (CDGK) beneath the Quaidabad Flyover, Bin Qasim Town, to evict land from ‘encroachers’ on Sunday. However, occupants warned on Monday of a protest against the operation. “We have lawful possession [of the land] because the Bin Qasim Town Municipal Administration (TMA) had leased the empty space to us,” said a protester.

Cabins had been constructed on the land as part of a scheme, pursuing the City Council resolution No. 514. According to the plan, 500 cabins would be built for Rs 600,000 each on the land after removing encroachments. These cabins would be given to vendors and hawkers. This plan kills two birds with one stone — it rids the CDGK of encroachments and provides income. The land has been encroached since 2008, officials reveal.

A tender was published and a private contractor was assigned the task of building the cabins. Mid-construction, the cabins were flattened in the Sunday operation as CDGK deemed it encroachment.

An EDO, supporting the operation, alleged that the cabin scheme is part of a Rs300 million scam in which the Bin Qasim Town administrator is involved. “There are some political parties backing the administrator.”

However, officials said the administrator had ordered the land operation on the basis of the City Council resolution that initiated selling recovered land to counter encroachment.

But, a district officer in the works and services department remarked, “the Bin Qasim TMA has been doing this for easy money. They are selling pavements for Rs20 each”.

The CDGK said they had launched the operation under the auspices of the district coordination officer, while Anti-Encroachment Cell officials claimed revenue district officer Shaukat Hussain Jokhio had launched the operation and had apprehended three alleged encroachers. But officials on the other side of the fence claim those arrested were only hawkers to whom the cabins had been leased. But, DO Abdul Malik refuted the claim. “The Bin Qasim TMA did not have any right to sell CDGK’s land,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bin Qasim Town Officer Sohail Yar Khan stressed that the Bin Qasim TMA had made the scheme in light of the City Council resolution. “The resolution was for 18 TMAs of the city and some administrations have already acted on it, like the Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Jamshed Towns.” Khan said DCO Karachi Muhammad Hussain Syed had visited the Bin Qasim TMA on January 22 and lauded the scheme, saying it would aesthetically enhance the town and provide job opportunities.

However, officials reveal that CDGK had asked the TMA to discontinue the scheme. The TMA, acting accordingly, asked the contractor to stop the work until they talk to the DCO to know the reason for stopping the scheme. The CDGK all of a sudden destroyed the cabins and cleared the land, arresting hawkers whom they have declared as members of the land mafia, officials add. “The DCO should have issued legal notice to the administrator of TMA Bin Qasim before they could start the operation.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2011.