NGO remembers slain social activist one year on
Nisar Baloch was killed a day after he gave a press conference naming land grabbers.
KARACHI:
It has been one year since social worker Nisar Baloch was killed, on Nov 7, in close proximity to the open amenity space, Gutter Baghicha, that he loved and had spent sixteen years trying to save.
On his first death anniversary, NGO ‘Shehri: Citizens for a Better Environment’ recalled his work for the people of the Trans-Lyari area. For many years, Nisar spearheaded the “Gutter Baghicha Bachao Tehreek” to save the 430 acres that had become the ‘lungs’ of a congested district encompassing Purana Golimar, Shershah, SITE, Nazimabad, Paposh, Dhobi Ghat, Mewashah and contiguous thickly populated areas. It was an amenity space where greenery flourished and children, women and men came to picnic and play.
According to a Shehri press release, in 1993 KMC/CDGK officials allotted themselves 200 acres (KMC Officers Society), along with smaller portions to other societies. Factories on the periphery of SITE nibbled at the edges of the park. Illegal water-hydrants were established in collusion with government officials.
In mid-June 2009, there was an armed invasion of the northern part of Gutter Baghicha in a section reserved for the 163-acre ‘National Park’, said Shehri. “Although this park was under development since 2005, this particular section had been deliberately left open and undeveloped so that a political mafia could grab it,” said Shehri. In May 2009, when the president announced a Rs0.4 billion grant, as part of the Green Karachi Project, for the ‘National Park’, the mafia panicked and began their encroachment.
In response to sustained local protests, FIR No 156/2009 dated June 30, 2009 was registered against the land grabbers at the Pak Colony police station. On July 15, the CDGK EDO (Revenue), Sajjad Hussain Abbasi, along with Senator Nisar Memon, columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee and other people inspected the land-grab and saw the armed men.
On July 29, 2009, six weeks after the “invasion”, the City Council passed Resolution No 544 providing plots in Gutter Baghicha to alleged “old inhabitants” of the adjacent Hasrat Mohani Colony who had been displaced 27 years earlier when the katchi abadi was regularised. On Sept 26, 2009, the CDGK submitted a layout map in the high court which showed about 50 acres sliced off the under-construction ‘National Park’.
For Shehri several questions remain. Where is the 1981/82 list (with NICs) of Hasrat Mohani Colony displaced persons? Where have they been living for the past 27 years? How did they all simultaneously start building houses at breakneck speed, and without KBCA-approved plans? Why did they need armed protection against neighbours with whom they had lived only 27 years previously? How were their allotment/lease documentation and utility (KESC/KWSB/SSGC) connections processed so expeditiously (it takes ordinary residents years)? Under what law can the City Council allot land for housing in an amenity sewage farm?
After many frustrating months of appealing to all and sundry, on Nov 6, 2009, Nisar Baloch and others held a press conference at the Karachi Press Club and named the persons behind the land grab. The next day Nisar Baloch was killed.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2010.
It has been one year since social worker Nisar Baloch was killed, on Nov 7, in close proximity to the open amenity space, Gutter Baghicha, that he loved and had spent sixteen years trying to save.
On his first death anniversary, NGO ‘Shehri: Citizens for a Better Environment’ recalled his work for the people of the Trans-Lyari area. For many years, Nisar spearheaded the “Gutter Baghicha Bachao Tehreek” to save the 430 acres that had become the ‘lungs’ of a congested district encompassing Purana Golimar, Shershah, SITE, Nazimabad, Paposh, Dhobi Ghat, Mewashah and contiguous thickly populated areas. It was an amenity space where greenery flourished and children, women and men came to picnic and play.
According to a Shehri press release, in 1993 KMC/CDGK officials allotted themselves 200 acres (KMC Officers Society), along with smaller portions to other societies. Factories on the periphery of SITE nibbled at the edges of the park. Illegal water-hydrants were established in collusion with government officials.
In mid-June 2009, there was an armed invasion of the northern part of Gutter Baghicha in a section reserved for the 163-acre ‘National Park’, said Shehri. “Although this park was under development since 2005, this particular section had been deliberately left open and undeveloped so that a political mafia could grab it,” said Shehri. In May 2009, when the president announced a Rs0.4 billion grant, as part of the Green Karachi Project, for the ‘National Park’, the mafia panicked and began their encroachment.
In response to sustained local protests, FIR No 156/2009 dated June 30, 2009 was registered against the land grabbers at the Pak Colony police station. On July 15, the CDGK EDO (Revenue), Sajjad Hussain Abbasi, along with Senator Nisar Memon, columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee and other people inspected the land-grab and saw the armed men.
On July 29, 2009, six weeks after the “invasion”, the City Council passed Resolution No 544 providing plots in Gutter Baghicha to alleged “old inhabitants” of the adjacent Hasrat Mohani Colony who had been displaced 27 years earlier when the katchi abadi was regularised. On Sept 26, 2009, the CDGK submitted a layout map in the high court which showed about 50 acres sliced off the under-construction ‘National Park’.
For Shehri several questions remain. Where is the 1981/82 list (with NICs) of Hasrat Mohani Colony displaced persons? Where have they been living for the past 27 years? How did they all simultaneously start building houses at breakneck speed, and without KBCA-approved plans? Why did they need armed protection against neighbours with whom they had lived only 27 years previously? How were their allotment/lease documentation and utility (KESC/KWSB/SSGC) connections processed so expeditiously (it takes ordinary residents years)? Under what law can the City Council allot land for housing in an amenity sewage farm?
After many frustrating months of appealing to all and sundry, on Nov 6, 2009, Nisar Baloch and others held a press conference at the Karachi Press Club and named the persons behind the land grab. The next day Nisar Baloch was killed.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2010.