‘Govt should rethink Zulfikarabad project’

WWF-P and FIF launch paper on the project, say social and ecological aspects can’t be ignored.

KARACHI: Much has already been penned about Zulfikarabad - the megacity the government has proposed to build along Thatta’s coastline. Armed with gloomy pictures, environmentalists have tried hard to make the government see things their way. On Thursday, they made yet another attempt. 

The Friends of the Indus Forum (FIF), in collaboration with World Wildlife Fund - Pakistan (WWF-P), formally launched a position paper titled ‘Ecological and Social Impacts of Zulfikarabad’.

The paper addressed multiple threats the Zulfikarabad poses to the ecological system. It reiterated much of the rhetoric that environmentalists have already stated about the project, the centre of which is the threat to species and the communities which depend on them for a living.

FIF’s president, Sikandar Brohi, said the proposed city lies on both sides of the Indus River in its delta. The city will be spread over Kharo Chan, Keti Bandar, Shah Banda and Thatta’s Jati taluka.

He added the Zulfikarabad project - named after Pakistan Peoples Party’s late chairperson, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto - will displace at least 0.5 million people. “Bhutto was a true leader of the common man. But the rulers of the same party are introducing a new project which is much despised by common men.”

He then read out the paper which alleged that the government and their corporate allies had been trying to convert the delta region into a highly lucrative urban spot. The paper pointed out that  building new cities in risky locations can reverse years of economic and human development if major disasters happen and urban planning is faulty.



In the paper, FIF stated it welcomes any development plan which goes beyond the economic angle and takes into account the social and environmental impact. But the organisation cut straight to the chase and pointed out that this has not been done in Zulfikarabad’s case.

Among the most serious reservations FIF stated are: the government’s apathy for the Indus Delta’s ecological significance, the chopping of mangrove forests to make room for the city, a change in the way vast tracts of land were going to be used and its impact on livelihoods.

The paper also pointed out that the government has yet to put forward a comprehensive plan to resettle those who will be displaced by the emergence of a megacity in the Indus Delta. The Zulfikarabad project also violates numerous international conventions and treaties, said FIF, adding that the government should seriously revisit the Zulfikarabad project and other similar plans to urbanise spots within the Indus Delta.

According to FIF, the accelerating urbanisation and the pressure this puts on infrastructure of existing cities is not a valid justification to build new ones - including Zulfikarabad. It suggests the government to instead iron out policies to improve the standard of living in rural areas - this will prevent people from migrating to urban centres in the first place.

Mehmood Akhtar Cheema, International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Pakistan representative, said the government must wake up to the fact that the Zulfikarabad project will hit the ecology as well as the livelihood of indigenous people. He stressed that assessing the ecological impact of a project is as important as trying to figure out its economic benefits. “In the case of Zulfikarabad, only economic benefits have been considered. The ecological and social aspects have been ignored.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2013.