June 12, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 07, 1429

KARACHI, June 11: Describ-ing the Karachi Strategic Development Plan 2020, better known as the master plan, as ‘disastrous’ for residents of old settlements in the city, speakers at a seminar urged the provincial government to cancel such plans, which were meant to uproot the old settlements and replace these by high-rise plazas in the name of the city’s development.

Presided over by Salman Murad Baloch, son of slain PPP leader Abdullah Murad Baloch, the seminar titled, the ‘Karachi Strategic Development Plan-2020,’ was organised by the Baloch Social and Cultural Society the other day at Malir Old Thana.

Sindh Minister for Katchi Abadis Rafiq Engineer, representative of civil society and a former provincial minister, Hakim Baloch, National Workers’ Party leader Yusuf Mustikhan, Gadap Town Nazim Murtaza Baloch, and coordinator of the Strengthening Participating Organization, Ellahi Bakhsh Baloch, among others spoke at the event.

They said several mega-projects being launched in the peripheral towns of the city would deprive the local people of their ancestral land. They had strong reservation over the recent policies of the city government and termed those ‘real estate-centric plans’ that would deprive people of their development rights. They urged the provincial government to scrap such a ‘disastrous’ plan, which would not benefit the local communities. They said only new settlers would benefit if the plan was executed as it would lead to displacement of local communities that amounted to clear-cut violation of human rights.

The representatives of civil society urged political leaders to protect socio-economic rights of local people and asked the federal government not to impose ‘unrealistic’ mega projects on the metropolis.