Observer Report
Pak Sarzameen Party Chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal on Sunday said that ongoing operation against encroachments across the city without providing alternatives to the affectees were not only a sign of government incompetence and indifference but also a matter of grave concern.
He said incompetent rulers are not resolving problems rather shifting it from one place and spreading the same throughout the city, thereby creating problems of law and order in the city.
The people whose houses are being demolished will not dissipate in thin air, they won’t not die but will settle in some other drain site in the same city.
The state is like a mother, it should act as one and provide shelter to allthe affected families. The occupants of drains are also the citizens of Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Kamal said no strategy was formulated by the government for the current operation. The honorable judiciary should take notice of this grim situation and summon the rulers and question their strategy as this behavior of the government is not only creating chaos but also hindrance in the drain cleaning and will also affect the development work as usual. The ultimate surfers of this situations will be non other than the poor masses.
During our mayorship period, we sat precedent for the rulers as how to manage the situation when it comes to demolish encroachments for the development projects without any chaos or agitation.
Today there are very few houses built on drains. while we had to demolish 34 thousand houses for the construction of Lyari Expressway but not a single demonstration was held against the move.
Kamal asked the incumbent administration to provide alternatives to the project affecters in the same manner as Lyari Expressway project was conducted and then demolish houses from drains.
During the construction of Lyari Expressway, the state, judiciary and local government built 3 settlements with provision of all basic amenities, 80 yards plot and a chequr of 50 thousand were handed over to the families whose houses were demolished. –
