12 July 2004	Monday	23 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, July 11: Survey and demarcation to transform the Gutter Baghicha into an enchanting park has at last been undertaken by the city government which will hopefully start development work on the project soon.

Although the city government had apportioned Rs1 million in the budget 2002-03 for the development work, it could not start the process and the allocation eventually lapsed.

City Nazim Naimatullah Khan, presiding over a meeting last week, had promised that the process would commence soon. The unauthorized office and an illegal wall raised by a land-grabber to slice the Gutter Baghicha's seven-acre piece of land has already been demolished, Nisar Baloch, a representative of the NGOs' Alliance told Dawn.

It may be recalled that President Musharraf, addressing a rally held in connection with the referendum for his office last April, had announced the plan to convert the Baghicha, a sewage treatment site in Pak Colony, into a national park.

Within its vicinity, there had been a government primary school built in 1923 with the name of Bunde Ali Makki School and meant for the children of farmers. However, because of its location - in a locality in the heart of busy commercial area - land mafia encroached upon a large part of the farmland in collision with police and set up factories and other such structures.

At present, there is only 430-acre area available as open space for developing the land for a park. Former chief secretary Dr Mutawakkil Kazi, while presiding over a meeting summoned to implement President Musharraf's plan, had recalled his childhood days when he had been living in Garden area and frequenting the park.

The meeting had noted that the number of parks, playgrounds and open amenity plots in the city were quite inadequate for the huge population. Due to mismanagement and government's failure in protecting such places from landgrabbers and encroachers had almost ruined the city's environment.

Though the park site is located in an ideal area of the old town, it has lost its past glory owing to unplanned and illegal construction all around it. Many efforts had been made to demolish the illegal structures and pave the way for the start of the development work, but no visible progress could be made for one reason or the other, mainly due to the apathy of the competent authorities.