KARACHI: Central Park plan on old Sabzimandi hits snags
By Habib Khan Ghori
KARACHI, Sept 28: The pace of work on the project of converting the old Sabzimandi into a central park appears to have slowed down, as uptil now only the ground has been levelled.
Besides, there is no display of any site plan of the park. Added to all this are rumours of litigation which are sending signals of concern to people keen to see an environment in Karachi matching its status of a megacity.
Concerned citizens fear that the land mafia might have placed obstacles in the way of development work of the proposed central park with an eye on its prime land, and they are of the view that the land mafia, which has reportedly hired the services of former armymen to deal with the authorities, after the restoration of democratic order in the country, could manage to manipulate things and influence the bureaucracy into disposing of parts of the parkland under the garb of giving it a proper geometrical shape.
They could sell the idea that since the parkland is near the seat of the City District Government Karachi, it could fetch a handsome amount of money for the cash-strapped provincial government.
However, the City Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, has tried to remove any such misgivings. In this connection, he said the Vth Corps officials, responsible for the project, had told him that now preliminary work relating to water and power supply was under way. Water and electricity needs had to be worked out before carrying out any further development work.
The Nazim said besides setting up a site office, a nursery was also being developed on one of the adjacent open ground and work on landscaping was in progress.
Mr Khan said a final presentation of the park design was likely soon which would be followed by a swift implementation of the project.
The project, spread over 16 acres, is being looked after by the Vth Corps since April 2 when it was handed over to the army to turn the land into a landmark. But so far only the ground has been levelled by removing boulders, boundary walls, auction platforms and encroachments of various kinds.
During the past six months as the work has not moved ahead from the stage of levelling the ground, its pace do not commensurate with the image of the army which in a short span of one year completed the Herculean task of developing a sprawling beautiful park around the mausoleum of the Quaid-i-Azam, concerned citizens say.
The authorities promised the proposed central park on the land of the old Sabzimandi when the plan for the new Sabzimandi had been conceived in the early 1990s. Since then, the authorities had been reiterating that the promise would be fulfilled.
Under an agreement signed between the Vth Corps Commander, Lt-Gen Tariq Waseem Ghazi, and the Nazim of the city government, Naimatullah Khan, on April 2, the park is to be developed by the Corps from its own resources.
The Nazim Karachi, at the time of signing ceremony of entrusting the job to the army, had requested the Corps Commander to develop a beautiful park under the “Green City Programme.” The request was conceded by the Corps Commander and it was decided, in principle, that the Corps would develop the central park from its own resources.
The army, which had earlier been assigned the task of supervising the shifting of the old Sabzimandi to the new site, had carried out a survey to ensure that no encroachment on any part of the land was made after it was vacated. Considering the shortage of open space and playgrounds in the city, the need for a sprawling park has become all the more necessary.
