KARACHI, May 31: A heated debate took place on Wednesday at the City Council session on a resolution seeking determination of new lease rates for katchi abadis in Karachi.

According to the resolution, the notified katchi abadis will be divided into six zones and plots in each zone will be categorized into residential, residential-cum-commercial, commercial and industrial. The lease rates of these plots will be determined according to their categories.

The session was chaired by the presiding officer of the council, Masood Mehmood, in the absence of naib nazim Nasreen Jalil, who has gone to London.

Initiating the debate, leader of the house, Asif Siddiqui, explained the objectives of the resolution, saying the city government wanted to facilitate people and develop these localities by providing them basic facilities and this could be only done by generating revenue.

Defending the resolution, he said it was incorrect to say that new rates were higher and poor people could not afford it.

He slammed the opposition members for criticizing the resolution “because of their vested interest.” His remarks provoked opposition members, Saeed Ghani and Sheikh Mehbub, and others who stood up on a point of order and accused the city government of working against the interests of the poor people.

Hot words were exchanged among members on both the sides and chaos prevailed for some time and the presiding officer had to repeatedly ask the members to maintain decorum of the house.

The opposition members termed the resolution anti-poor. Sheikh Mehbob said attempts were being made to throttle the poor who had already been overburdened. He went on to say that we would in no way accept this resolution.

Saeed Ghani demanded enforcement of uniformed lease rates in Karachi city. He said that the former city nazim, Niamatullah Khan, had maintained rates of 1992, and insisted on previous rate of Rs25 per square yard.

He said under the new lease rate, Rs55 will be charged on a 60 square yard plot instead of Rs25 per sq yard.

Similarly, he added that plots, measuring between 60 and 80 square yards, would be charged at the rate of Rs100 instead of Rs25.

He further stated that the lease rate of plots measuring between 81 and 120 square yards would be revised to Rs220 from Rs25, while rate for those measuring between 121 and 140 square yards would be revised to Rs385 from Rs110, while rates of plots measuring between 141 and 240 square yards will be Rs 440 instead of Rs120 and the rates of plots measuring 241 have been raised to Rs3,850 instead of Rs200. Mr Ghani termed it unjust to the poor population of katchi abadis.

Some of the opposition members stressed the need for a consensus on the issue. They were of the view that the issue was very important and it was related to 98 per cent population of the city as a majority of them live in these katchi abadis.

Council members, defending the city government, said no development work could be carried out without revenue and added that the CDGK was keen to develop katchi abadis by accelerating the pace of development work. They recalled that so far the CDGK had regularized 121 katchi abadis. Mr Abdul Jalil, Abu Talib and some other council members also defended the resolution.

An emotional scene was witnessed in the house when Syed Irshad Ali alleged that land mafia was behind the growth of katchi abadis and these were also the centre of drug trafficking in the city. His remarks provoked the opposition leaders who made counter-allegations. However, the presiding officer controlled the situation by urging both the sides of the house to maintain proper decorum of the house.

Dilwar Shah of the Keamari Town surprised the house when he said that Keamari had been in existence since 1850 and it had never been accorded due status as people of this town had been deprived of all facilities.

He criticized the KPT for not paying any attention to the development of this old settlement. He alleged that the KPT chairman wanted to shift the port population. He also criticised the city government for not taking keen interest in the development of Keamari Town. The presiding officer adjourned the session for Thursday to continue debate on the resolution.