Going bananas over a plot: Khairpur labourers worry about losing market to play ground

Govt wants to build the ground for scouts by moving the wholesale date and banana market.

SUKKUR:

Thousands of labourers who work at the wholesale date and banana market in Khairpur are worried about being displaced as the land being used for the market might be converted into a sports ground.

According to the Khairpur Banana Market Association president Haji Fatehuddin Phulpoto, the plot is a property of the Sindh Boy Scouts Association and has been rented out on the monthly rent of Rs45,000.

“The Khairpur Municipal Corporation had earlier claimed ownership of the land and the matter was taken to court by the Sindh Boy Scouts Association who won the battle. We have also approached the court against forcibly making us vacate the land,” said Phulpoto. “The plot that the government is offering us as substitute is situated near Bhano Phulpoto village, where the law and order situation is very bad. Four to five feet high water is also accumulating in that area, making the land useless for us.”



Malik Abdul Ghaffar, a banana dealer, told The Express Tribune that they were not only supplying bananas throughout the country but also exporting it to Iran and Afghanistan. “This market is paying Rs100,000 as tax per day to the government and provides jobs to more than 5,000 people. Government officials often visit the market to force us to vacate, saying that a park will be constructed on this plot. But we all know that they are just making space for a grand palace envisioned by an influential politican.”

Referring to the order passed by the court on November 26, another trader Haji Fatehuddin said that the Sindh High Court’s Sukkur bench clearly said that the petitioner [Banana Market Association] shall not be made to leave by the authorities, except in due course of law. “Despite the pending matter in court and the orders, officers from the district administration try to pressure us into vacating the plot. Not only do they want to displace thousands of labourers but they also want to demolish hundreds of huts in which our families are living,” he lamented.

The other side

The provincial secretary of the Sindh Boy Scouts Association, Syed Akhtar Meer, confirmed to The Express Tribune that the plot belongs to the association. “We rented out six acres of the land to the date and banana market but they [labourers] have occupied more than that. We don’t have any objection if the date and banana market remains within the rented six acres,” he said. “The Khairpur deputy commissioner has allotted this plot to the district boy scouts but he has no authority to do so. A meeting is scheduled with the Sindh governor on December 26 to discuss this matter.”

Naseer Sahito, the personal secretary to MNA Nafeesa Shah and spokesperson of the Jeelani House, brushed aside the allegations of the market association, claiming that the Jeelanis have never forcibly occupied an inch of land. According to Sahito, the government wants to follow through with the original purpose of the plot and construct a ground for sports and scouts’ activities. He alleged that the office bearers of the market association had become puppets in the hands of those who wanted to malign the character of the Jeelanis.

Khairpur Deputy Commissioner Munawar Mithiyani was not available for comments.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2013.