KARACHI, May 30: The All Parties Conference has demanded that the ongoing work on the Lyari Expressway project be stopped forthwith and executed in accordance with the relevant laws.
If leased settlements are not protected and their rights are not given recognition, the people would put up a resistance against the project.
This demand was made through one of the resolutions adopted at a moot organized by the Action Committee for Civic Problems on Friday at the PMA House with Baseer Naveed in the chair.
The participants of the conference were Ghinva Bhutto, chairperson of PPP (SB), Mohammad Hussain Mehanti, parliamentarian of MMA, Taj Haider of PPP, Rafique Engineer of MPA, Sardar Rahim of PML(N), Hafiz Muhammad Taqi of JUP, Naheed Afzal of Tehreek-i-Insaf, Jameel Khan of National Workers Party, Nisar Shah of Labour Party, Al Haj Rafi of Nizam-i-Mustafa Party, Abdul Khaliq Junejo of Jiye Sindh Mahaz and Amin Khattak of Awami National Party.
The APC formed a committee which will call on Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and City Nazim Naimatullah Khan to convince them to order execution of the project according to the plan submitted by the action committee.
The conference condemn-ed the project for rendering over 250,000 people home-less and asked how it was possible to construct more than 24 bridges on a 16.5-km-long road.
The moot expressed apprehension that the purpose of the project was only to acquire prime land so that it could be used commercially.
In other resolutions it was pointed out that in line of the project of the National Highway Authority, over 25,000 housing units, 6,000 industrial and trade concerns, over 200 schools and 57 mosques, two temples and one church had to be demolished resulting in over 250,000 people becoming homeless and thousands becoming unemployed.
The APC demanded that the original list of the affected people be made public. It also demanded that the project design be amended after seeking suggestions from the city district government council and the Sindh Assembly.
“The Karachi Circular Railway should be restored immediately and an agree-ment to improve its working be finalized with the Chinese firm to facilitate commuters,” the All Parties Conference demanded through other resolutions.
