[sustran] re: FW: EVICTION ALERT APPEAL re Expressway in Karachi

[Paul Barter]

-----Original Message-----
From: URC [mailto:urckhi at hinet.net.pk] 
Sent: Tuesday, 23 January 2001 2:00 PM
To: ...
Subject: EVICTION ALERT APPEAL 

  
EVICTION ALERT APPEAL FROM
POOR COMMUNITIES OF LYARI NADI (river)
IN KARACHI, PAKISTAN.

Please correct fax no for Main Muhammad Soomro, Governor of Sindh Fax 92 21
920 1218

See below new stories on bulldozing operation  

KARACHI: City govt suggests changes in design: Expressway clean-up begins 
 By Our Staff Reporter 

KARACHI, Jan 21: The city government has asked the federal government to
make changes in the design of Lyari Expressway to bring uniformity in its
width for smooth flow of heavy goods trucks and to save thousands of people
from being displaced. 

Through a resolution adopted by the city government's Council on Monday, it
drew the attention of President Pervez Musharraf to the big differences in
the width of Lyari Expressway, saying it was surprising to note that its
width at the starting point at Shershah was 860 feet whereas at Sohrab Goth,
where the project ended, it was only 460 feet. 

The Council meeting, presided over by Naib Nazim Tariq Hasan, demanded of
the president to direct the authorities concerned to keep the Expressway 40
feet wide all through its length, as by doing so the government would be
saving millions of rupees and thousands of homes and a school in Shershah
from demolition. 

The Council hoped, through the resolution, that the government would
consider the request of the House keeping in view the pros and cons of the
highly ambitious project. 

Karachi's biggest anti-encroachment drive was launched on Monday morning
when bulldozers and other heavy machinery came into action to clear the bed
of the Lyari river for the construction of an expressway linking the Karachi
Port, through Mauripur Road, with Super Highway via Sohrab Goth for heavy
traffic. 

The Nazim Karachi, Naimatullah Khan, distributed on Monday cheques for
Rs50,000 and documents of plots of 80 square yards to those affected by the
Lyari Express way enlisted in a survey report. 

The Nazim said compensations would be paid to the affected people the same
day to avoid trouble to them, adding that survey of the Lyari river had been
undertaken three times after which a list of 14,000 families living in the
area had been prepared. 

Speaking to the affected people, he said alternative plots being given in
Baldia Town were more valuable than the ones on which they had been living
and assured them of providing all basic facilities. 

The go-ahead signal for the much-delayed 16.5-km long Lyari Expressway,
project costing Rs5 billion, which had been conceived and designed in 1996,
was given by the president after seeking opinions of experts. 

The operation began at 8:30am from Mauripur Road site and till afternoon
two-and-a-half km area was cleared of unauthorized structures comprising
mainly illegal cattle-pens, auto workshops and commercial ventures
established by brick makers. 

Hundreds of residents witnessed the operation and there was no resistance.
The operation was so swift that within a few hours more than a two-km area
was cleared. 

When this reporter visited the project site, he saw that some of the
occupants were busy in shifting their kutcha structures and material to
other places. However, many of them had already shifted their wooden
structures and material before the arrival of anti-encroachment staff. 

The operation was supervised by the deputy district officer, Salman Faridi,
of the city government's revenue department with the active cooperation of
all anti-encroachment squads of the Karachi city's Towns, including the
Lyari Town. 

It was fully backed by a heavy contingent of police drawn from all police
stations of the city. The operation was swift and peaceful and no untoward
incident occurred, said Abdul Malik Khan, deputy district officer (AE) of
the city government. 

The illegal occupants had been in possession of a big area of land on the
river's banks and had been doing business for years without paying any
municipal or government taxes. Despite this, the federal government directed
the Sindh government for the rehabilitation of the affected people. 

The project was revived by the present army government and its construction
work handed over to the National Highway Authority (NHA). More than 255
acres of land meant for the construction of the proposed Expressway would be
retrieved and handed over to the NHA. 

CRITICIZED: Various NGOs criticized the government for demolishing
residential and commercial structures from Gulbai to Shershah for the
construction of Lyari Expressway and for displacing people in the cold
weather without serving prior notice on them. 

In a joint statement, the Urban Resource Centre (URC), Idara Amn-o-Insaf,
Commission for Human Rights, Orangi Pilot Project, PILER, Orangi Welfare
Project, Ghaziabad Falahi Committee and United Welfare Association urged the
government to provide the affected families with alternative houses with all
basic facilities in keeping with the government's housing policy. 

Director Mohammed Yunus and Social Organizer Zahid Farooq of the URC visited
the site on Monday, where people told them that they had been residing there
for the past several years with the cooperation of the government
departments and had small businesses to make their living. The affected
people urged the government to rehabilitate them on the land which would be
left in the Lyari Expressway project. They feared the leftover land of the
project would be given to the builders' mafia. 

The NGOs suggested that the government build the Northern Bypass and shift
the chemical market and other businesses from Lyari and the Old city area to
the land along the Northern Bypass so that the affected families could get a
better place to live in. 

(Dawn 22/01/02 Karachi)
--------------------

Lyari Expressway
Operation to remove encroachments
begins, construction may start in March 
By our correspondent

KARACHI: The City Government, in cooperation with army, rangers and police,
on Monday started a major operation to remove the structures impeding the
Lyari Expressway. Sources said that on the first day of the operation 1,900
encroachments, spread over three-kilometre area of the Lyari Riverbed from
Mauripur to Mewa Shah Bridge, were removed. The encroachments included
cattle pens, restaurants, workshops, Bakrapeerhis, godowns, vehicle service
stations, edible oil factories and vendors etc, the sources said adding that
no resistance occurred during the day-long operation, as over 30 mobiles and
40 platoons of the law enforcers were present during the demolition process.
Teams of women police, Fire Brigade, Edhi, KESC, SSGC, Traffic Police were
also present.
Brig Ayaz Peer of Army Supporting Team supervised the operation while the
project director of the campaign Captain Nasir, EDO Revenue, Javaid Hanif,
senior deputy district officer, Salman Faridi, district officer Mirza Jawed
Baig, SSP South Abdul Majeed Dasti, SSP West Dr Tariq Khokhar and other
officials concerned were also present on the occasion.
The operation started at 9.00 am and continued till sunset, the sources said
adding that the National Highway Authority (NHA) which would carry out work
on Lyari Expressway after the completion of the anti-encroachment drive,
took over the pieces of land recovered on Monday. However, the NHA would
start levelling the land from Tuesday. The city government on the occasion
sealed the illegally constructed shops and mosques, demolition of which
would begin in the second phase of the operation.
Talking to The News, Zila Nazim City District Government Karachi Naimatullah
Khan said that 14,000 families and over 100,000 persons would be affected by
the cited operation, however, he said they would be given alternate plots
measuring 80 square yard each in Baldia, Surjani Town and Hawkesbay and a
cheque of Rs 50,000 to each affectee. He said he gave documents of the
alternate plots and cheques to 14 families who were affected on the first
day of the drive.
The EDO Revenue Javaid Hanif said that the camp in connection with the
anti-encroachment drive would be established near the industrial units,
impeding the project, on Tuesday so that the industrialists could be
persuaded to vacate their units voluntarily because the demolition process
could start there within a couple of day.
Work on Rs 5 billion Lyari Expressway will start by March 23 and removal of
structures, impeding the expressway has already started. Zila Nazim City
District Government Karachi Naimatullah Khan said this, while speaking as
chief guest at the inauguration ceremony of "Ladies' and Children's Park" at
Block 6, PECHS under the aegis of CPLC Neighbourhood Care. Naimat informed
that 14,000 families would be affected following anti-encroachment drive for
the expressway. However, each of them would be given alternative plots of 80
square yards in Baldia, Surjani Town and Hawkesbay and a cheque of Rs
50,000. 
 (The News 22/1/02)

 _____________________________
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74800 Pakistan 
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E-mail urckhi at hinet.net.pk
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