Come out if you care about Karachi

A new bill threatens city’s parks and playgrounds.


Express March 04, 2011
Come out if you care about Karachi

KARACHI:


Not-for-profit Shehri-CBE is organising a peaceful rally against the proposed Sindh Protection and Prohibition of Amenity Plots Bill 2009 on Saturday, March 5, at 5pm at Mazaar-e-Quaid at the gate facing Numaish Roundabout where people will gather, shout slogans and hold a token march for about 20 minutes.


According to a Shehri press release on Friday, the deceptively named bill essentially states that the MPAs can change the use of amenity land and the bill is backdated to all actions from 1994.

This proposed bill describes an “amenity plot” as a piece of land granted, earmarked for use or intended to be used for parks, gardens, playgrounds, graveyards, roads, hospitals, schools, colleges, educational institutions, including nationalised and denationalised ones, health institutions, reading rooms, libraries, community centres, treatment plants, power houses, places for religious worship and open places kept for recreation or expansion other than residential, commercial, industrial or for cottage industry.

All these places will and can be changed and sold to private individuals to build commercial plazas, flat sites, offices etc.

This harmful and immoral bill means that any amenity land can be grabbed or the land that has already been illegally occupied since 1994 can acquire legal cover, said the press release. “If this bill becomes law it will legalise the actions of land grabbers, open the floodgates of corruption and totally destroy our Karachi and the other cities of Sindh.”

“We want the political parties to come forward and let the citizens know what is the objective behind this bill,” said Shehri. “What has prompted them to make a decision such as this. It violates the basic human right to life of every human being. The citizens [of Sindh’s cities] want this bill withdrawn and the law ministry to apologise to [them] for even allowing and considering such a bill.”

For further information, please visit Shehri-Citizens for a Better Environment’s website www.shehri.org.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5th, 2011.

COMMENTS (3)

irfan khan | 13 years ago | Reply @imran fahad: Homophobia is rampant in our country.Religious barbarians as well as the self proclaimed liberals & seculars are just as homophobic & antagonistic towards the gay community. Gays in pakistan have no recognition,we have hundreds of cases in our country where gay men especially from the fashion industry are forced by their parents & their colleagues to get married.They then take part in a sham marriage & ruin their own as well as the girl's life. It's time the gays & lesbians of pakistan stood up for themselves & their rights & came out of the closet instead of living a lie for the rest of their lives.
imran fahad | 13 years ago | Reply Come out of the closet i say! The extent of homophobia present in our society is sickening.Men & women both are disgustingly homophobic in our land. Sonay pe sohaga is that the same mualvis who have no objection over raping boys in their madrassas spew hate & venom against the gay community. The religious barbarians do everything they can to make life a living hell for the minority gay community in pakistan.
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