A view of an abandoned park in Rawalpindi. PHOTO: MUHAMMAD JAVAID / EXPRESS
Rawalpindi’s green spaces are under attack these days from encroachers and street urchins who carry out shady activities. Instead of being havens for tranquility, sanctuaries for people seeking an unruffled retreat -- they are turning into hellholes.
“City parks have seriously been compromised. Most of them are full of filth and reek with an odour that can be likened to garbage dumps,” laments Mustafa Kazmi, a Satellite Town resident.
Being a long-time city resident, Dr Mehboob Ali is pained at the decline in the quality of parks and termed them, barring a few, as atrocious. “The conditions prevailing in parks range from very bad to good in terms of sanitary conditions,” he said.
The example of this range is evident from the completely neglected parks like Satellite Town Commercial Market Park, Ali Masjid Park, Hilal Park, Shah Sultan Park, Dhoke Kala Khan Park, Dhoke Mistrian Park, Shah Najaf Park, Mohra Sharif Park, Sarajeea Park, Dosehra Ground Park, and Muslim Town Park to the somewhat better maintained parks like Nawaz Sharif Park, Masjid Furqan Park, DSP Park, Ladies Park B-Block of Satellite Town, Edhi Park, Behari Colony Park, Chachi Mohallah Park and Millat Colony Park, which are comparatively better, but still have some broken facilities such as swings, benches, and lights.
Go to Asghar Mall Scheme Park behind National Market on Kali Tanki Road and you will find it defiled beyond redemption. At times inundated with dirty Nullah Leh water, with a garbage dump on the left side, laundry spread out on the ugly bushes to dry, practically invisible grass and grounds filled with waste are more than enough to turn away visitors.
“The park becomes a quagmire during rainy spells. It gets whipped up pretty badly and conjures the worst possible image. Even in dry weather, it is difficult to enjoy a walk around the park,” residents complain.
“Shortages of staff and funds alleged by the Parks and Horticultural Authority may not be the only reasons that the parks have been lying unattended for years. Misappropriation of money might be behind this situation,” suspected Khawar Khawaja, an old-timer of the locality.
“The only thing wrong with our city parks is that there are not enough of them. They are treated like private property by developers who dump construction material there, politicians organise public meetings and criminals have unfettered sessions there, all of which makes the area inaccessible for local residents,” said Safdar Hussain, a college professor.
“Stop destroying what little green space is left in the city. It is sad that we are facing the fact that it won’t be around much longer for us to enjoy,” said Ali Nawaz, an architect.
“Our parks are not protected by the law. They have deteriorated because the concerned authority is focused more on other things rather than on their upkeep. The best way to ensure that we and future generations enjoy parks is to properly maintain them,” said Jameel Hasan, a trader.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 28th, 2013.
COMMENTS (17)
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There is research that children with ADHD who are exposed to more greenery and trees learn more easily. Asthma and obesity problems are enormously reduced with access to parks and park-goers are always healthier.
Yes, part of the problem with the parks is a budget issue, but another part of it is a matter of political will.
Parks have long been whipping boys of city fathers and municipal budget-makers across the country. With long-standing national economic uncertainty eating into municipal revenues, cuts to park budgets have become more frequent and pronounced.
Parks in many neighborhoods have been long neglected by the city fathers. Lack of maintenance has transformed the parks from an asset into a liability for the whole areas.
For many years the parks have been neglected. We demand more robust political response from our elected representatives beyond putting up just signboards displaying hefty budget spent on the parks.
Asghar Mall Scheme residents who are unhappy with the condition of their park can never expect the problem to be rectified. As the soil dug up from a park located on the same road a bit ahead has been dumped in the park under discussion in the story. How ironic!
We were taught to respect other people’s property, especially public proprerty which is for all to enjoy. Parents were responsible for their children. Children were taught by their parents to behave in public. And we would pick up trash left by the lazy, ignorant and uncaring. When the uncaring were a minority of the population public places remained orderly. With the uncaring in the majority public order is lost ... and may never be regained.
Is it possible that the core problem is not the state, or city fathers or police or government but with the culture of the people?
Let me recount a story about continuing to “press the issue”. The officials of the concerned department supposed to look after the city parks were sitting around at their office getting super high when someone said, “Hey we need to clean up the parks.” They all laughed and passed around another one. We were really having a conversation at the highest level dude.
I haven't heard one word from any politician from this region espouse anything pertaining to this issue. They are too busy with campaigning for the coming election.
Thank you for writing about this. I am a new resident to the Nawaz Sharif Park neighborhood and the opportunity to live by a potentially beautiful parkside is what drew my wife and me to the neighborhood. We love taking walks and taking in the beautiful sunsets but the overall experience is not good. People leave dirty things there, tag everything with graffiti, including trees, use obnoxious language in front of children and treat park grounds like street corners. Again thank you for looking into this and please continue to press the issue.
It’s very important for park users to stay on the issue; I looked this week beyond the cosmetic problems and discovered something more outrageous than overflowing trash cans. I discovered years of bureaucratic inaction, which is more challenging to unclog than the toughest public toilet.
Even the ladies Park in B Block, S, Town doesn't enjoy so good a condition. We should create an authority that gives control of the parks to the neighborhood associations rather than a governmental body. Only then the park equipment can be repainted, the grass mowed, and trash picked up because of the efforts of the community.
I remember running around as a young kid on the green grassy ground of Asghar Mall Scheme Park. Some of the parks in the area have fallen into serious disrepair and several others can be called poor or mediocre.
The condition of parks in my locality i.e. B Block Satellite Town is worse than I thought. I have noted overgrown grass, uncollected trash and the poor conditions of amenities, from conked out benches to uneven ground and busted grill walls. Not to talk of the boys playing cricket there.
The story and related photo generates outrage and should prompt the concerned department to immediately launch an aggressive assault on the weeds and other problems.