‘City on twin islands will deprive 800,000 fishermen of livelihood’

The proposed construction of a new city on the twin islands of Dingi and Bhandar on Karachi's coast will affect the isles' residents and deprive around 800,000 fishermen of livelihood, leading to extreme poverty, civil society members and rights activists raised alarm on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference, they voiced opposition to the plans of establishing a city on the islands, saying that they are also home to mangrove forests, spread over thousands of hectares.

These forests are nurseries of fish and shrimps, and creeks from Karachi to Thatta serve as fishing ground, they pointed out, adding that the construction of the city on the islands would not just result in the loss of the vast fishing ground, but would also harm the environment.

Criticising the Centre for pitching the formation of the Pakistan Islands Development Authority to 'develop the twin islands', the speakers decried that the Centre, instead of ensuring the supply of water to the Indus delta, was "illegally occupying and ruining the islands by the river in the name of development."

This is not development, this is destruction, they remarked.

As per the speakers, the Centre went ahead with planning the project without consulting the Sindh government on the matter, even when the islands were under the provincial government's control according to the Constitution.

Plus, they added, the move will be violation of international conventions, which called for the provision of social, cultural and economic independence to indigenous communities.

Sindh's islands are the property of the people of the province… fishermen have a right over them and the provincial government is the custodian of [coastal] land and forests, they maintained.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2020.