Football ground makes way for housing scheme in Hazara Town

Local population deprived of right to play football safely

KARACHI: “It’s like trapping us in a dungeon. Living as a member of the Hazara community in Balochistan is already extremely difficult; now they are taking away our playground as well,” football player Ali Raza lamented during a protest against the construction of a housing scheme on a playground in Hazara Town, Balochistan.

Ali is not alone in voicing his concerns; there are 22 more clubs who are protesting with him. All they want is a place to play within their community as any place outside their vicinity becomes life-threatening.

The small town with a total population of 450,000 has only one playground, the Hazara Town Ground, where approximately 300-350 children play football in the evenings. But with the announcement of the housing scheme last month, these children will have no place play.

“Being a Hazara in Balochistan, we have to face many challenges. We can’t get out of our area so we had football and sports to keep ourselves entertained and healthy. However, last month we saw our ground replaced by bulldozers and trucks,” explained Ali.

“It is heartbreaking for us because our playground is being taken away; where are we supposed to play now? Sports are as important to us as education. In fact most children pick up their favourite sport before picking up their favourite subject.”

Head of the Hazara Sports Committee Naimat Mazhar, who is leading the protest, revealed that the locals had been using the playground for three decades and provincial assembly member Syed Muhammad Raza had promised to improve the facilities.

However, when the bulldozers came to announce a housing scheme instead of a ‘world-class sporting facility’, as promised by Raza, everyone in the community was taken by surprise.

“It is very confusing for us; no one in the last 30 years ever came to claim this piece of land. In fact in 2010 a member of the provincial assembly had promised to allot Rs40 million for the development of a world-class sporting facility, but that didn’t happen. Now all of a sudden some builder comes along without any proof of ownership and just digs up the whole place. We have been protesting for two weeks now but to no avail,” said Mazhar.

The demands of the young athletes and the Hazara Sports Committee is simple; just give us a playground to carry out our sporting activities as it is too dangerous to go out and play.

The Hazara players try to go out to Pakistan Sports Board’s Ayub Stadium or the Hazara Stadium on Alamdar Road, but they usually get attacked and many Hazaras have lost their lives to sectarian violence in the past.

Olympian Abrar Hussain, a boxer who represented Pakistan in the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Olympics, was killed at the Hazara Stadium in 2011 and two years later in 2013, the same area was the target of various bomb attacks.

“We have very talented footballers, they even practice on this ground despite all the digging; they are passionate and they would go out to Ayub Stadium or Hazara Stadium too, but we all know they might not return alive if they try to go there regularly,” said Mazhar.

He said that the protests will continue till the government of Balochistan makes the final decision over the matter. “We’ll sit at the site and play despite the construction work and we are trying to talk to the Balochistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri.  So far all our efforts have been in vain as all the officials give us the impression that they can’t do anything about it; the government should help us with this at least,” said Mazhar.