Consultation on Forced Evictions
28th 29th May, Karachi
Forced eviction of families in various villages and Goths in Karachi and surrounding area's is a major concern for all humanitarian organizations. It is a humanitarian issue and the affectees of this forced eviction should be supported ethically and morally; these views were shared by the participants at a consultation on Forced Eviction in Karachi organized under the governance portfolio of ActionAid Pakistan in collaboration with Aurat Foundation.
This consultation was aimed at discussing the issue of forced eviction from all perspectives including government, opposition and affectees to reach at a common consent to solve the issue. According to the reports more than 15 villages have so far been razed leaving thousands of families homeless at the height of scorching summer, rendering women, children and elderly vulnerable to sickness and insecurity. Assets of these poor have been destroyed. The City District government has no regrets less to say any plans to compensate these families or offer them alternative housing. Reportedly two protesters lost their lives when police resorted to firing on a mob on Friday May 5, 2006 at Sikandar Goth which is now enveloped by a rapidly proliferating posh housing scheme of the area.
The speakers at the occasion were Shireen Aijaz, (Aurat Foundation), Imtiaz Sheikh (Ex- Minister of Revenue Sindh), Wasim Akhtar (Provincial Minister for Local Government), Rafiq Engineer (PPPP), Qaisar Bengali (SZABIST), Iqbal Haider, Secretary General Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Anis Haroon (Aurat Foundation).
While opening the session Tasleem from ActionAid said that both the organizations are committed to serve the people in plight and we are with the people in this miserable time. She said that all the concerned people are invited so that we don get biased; we have invited the affectees as well as representatives of the government, PPP, MQM and all other concerned groups including the civil society to give their opinion on this matter. She further said that state is equally responsible for this miserable incident as state is responsible to provide shelter to the citizens. Right to shelter is internationally and nationally recognized right and state has failed to provide this basic right to people.
The affectees were also given the opportunity to present their cases, affectees included; Haji Khan Solangi from Dilawar Goth, Ghulam Mustafa Chandio from Abdulla Ghazi Goth, Muhammad Arif Sheikh from Sikandar Goth, Khadim Chandio from Juma Goth and Muhammad Bashir Sarwar from Yousaf Goth. These affectees presented their cases and pointed out that according to the law of 1912 any settlements having 20 houses should be considered as a Basti or Goth. They said many of the Goths from the time of creation of Pakistan have been displaced from one place to the other but this time they are planning to eradicate them from the surface of the earth. The affectees of Juma Goth said that in 1978 two housing societies claimed the ownership of land but the deputy commissioner of that time as well as the court decided in our favor. Those societies which kept claiming this land were provided alternate land somewhere else in 1991 but these societies are still claiming this land. Now on 4th may with the help of police this Goth was demolished without any notice and violent acts were committed against the women and children. They said we are ready to buy this land on higher price than these housing societies and we truly deserve to get the ownership of the land. Similar stories were told by the affectees of other Goths.
Shireen from Aurat Foundation shared a video film which showed the demolishment and the plight of people from the eye of a camera. Furthermore Shereen presented a survey report carried out by Aurat Foundation in two of the demolished Goths.
Qaiser Bengali a human rights activist while talking about poor settlements in the cosmopolitan Karachi said that our state is state of elites and whenever they want they throw the poor out. Same happened in Lahore when railway demolished the kachi bastis. Qaiser Bengali further said that only poor peoples settlements are taken as encroachment area what about Bani Gala in Islamabad where all the powerful elites have their plots and huge farms, which are snatched from the poor settlers who have been living here for centuries. Why can a bulldozer reach there? The artillery ground was given to army for official purposes but they are using it for residential and commercial purposes, now the point is if the army doesn have an official use of the land they should give to the government they have no right to use it for other purposes. He said principally army should give back the land to the government of Sindh first and then ask these people to give back their land.
Tasneem Sidiqui while talking about the development paradigm which is being followed by the government said that what type of development is going on in our country which believes in leaving people shelter-less? He said the policy makers must review their plans of action and should restructure all the plans regarding development, so that they take the country forward with a balanced approach.
Wasim Akhtar the Provincial Minister of the Local Government said we are all here in the name of humanity so we shouldn politicize the issue. Everybody here has criticized the present government but this issue is not so recent it has been there since the creation of Pakistan so criticizing this government alone is wrong. He said if we had been given provincial autonomy this wouldn have been the case. The land of Karachi is controlled from Islamabad and this is the greatest misfortune and the main reason of this incident. He said only 20% of the people are the genuine affectees and the remaining 80% are basically driven to protest by land mafia. He further said that government is ready to give compensation to these 20% as it has compensated the affectees of Liyari Express Way.
Iqbal Haider from HRCP while shedding light on the issue with reference to international and national law said that according to the definition of property in the constitution these people have all the rights to this land and according to the constitutional clauses this forced eviction is absolutely a lawless act.
While concluding the session Anis Haroon from Aurat Foundation clarified that this session has not been organized to support any of the concerned groups, thats why we invited representatives from all the stakeholders. She said civil society is here to mediate we provide platform where all the stake holders can sit and talk. Our stand is a principle stand and we want to formulate a committee and want to demarcate between the affected 20% people and the other 80% people from land mafia. She said though these mistakes have been done by all the governments but we request this government not to follow these mistakes and please compensate the people here. 50,000 rupees are not enough as compensation as we can build a house in this meager amount in todays world. She further suggested that all the parties should sit and should plan that what should be done and what should all these affectees be provided as compensation.
The consultation was followed by a protest rally.
