SINCE 1999, my husband and I have been working on a project for the construction of an orphanage in the mountainous region of Bhurban. We have named the project, The Turning Point Trust. The land next to our house in Bhurban was purchased by us and we registered it in court as a ‘trust’. We received a wonderful response from everyone we knew and were able to collect a good amount of money to complete the project.
Usually, shortage of funds is one of the impediments to getting such a project off the ground. With us it was different. We flew in to Bhurban from Kuwait for the ground-breaking ceremony in September 2001. The entire village gathered at the site and the work on the project started. We laid the foundation stone and happily returned to Kuwait, where we presently live. The contractor promised full scale work so that the construction work would be ready before the snowfall, since such work in this part of the world is done between April and October due to the severe winter season.
As soon as the steel structure was complete and the roof for the basement was going to be put, we received a panic call from the contractor that the village people had stopped construction because of a stay order from the court. We were told that the gentleman who owned the land behind our land wanted us to purchase the land behind the orphanage. Since we did not buy his land, he went to the court. The reason he gave was that waste matter coming out of the orphanage would pollute his land. This was ridiculous since the orphanage had not yet been built.
We sent a power of attorney to the contractor requesting him to appeal against the stay order. The sewerage pit had been made with the RCC. The court cancelled the stay order as proof was submitted. This took six months of running around.
Winter set in and it started to snow. As soon as the snow melted, we decided to return to Bhurban and resume working on the project.
When we arrived we were told by some of the villagers that they would like to meet us. We offered to go to their houses, so that they would not feel that we were being rude. They made excuses and preferred to come to our house instead.
The delegation comprised the owner of the land that was located behind ours, a driver of a public school and several others. They resented the idea of dealing with a woman in the meeting. Five so-called wise men of the village approached us with the request not to build an orphanage in the region. They felt that the orphanage would be an insult to them since it would be housing orphans from other areas of Pakistan. They suggested we build a hotel or a medical centre instead.
This meeting was held under a lot of duress because those present were very coarse and rude in their dealings with us. They repeatedly insisted that we should purchase their land. We got in touch with a very good lawyer from the area, who explained to us that legally they were not in any way authorized to stop the construction.
With a cool mind we reviewed the request of the villagers and felt that healthcare was equally needed in the area. In fact, a “walk-in” health centre would benefit more people than an orphanage.
With the idea of building a “walk-in” health centre, we wrote a letter to all donors to take their approval for the change in our mission. We received a positive reaction and the go-ahead from all. We got in touch with a retired colonel, who was working as principal staff officer, at the International Medical College Trust, Islamabad. The colonel took the trouble to prepare a detailed feasibility study for the health centre. Having substantive paper work in hand, we left for Bhurban excited to execute work in different phases according to the funds available with us.
When we reached there, once again the locals came to see us and requested that we meet the Nazim of the area to take their blessing and assurances that construction would be allowed to go on without any hindrance. The meeting was arranged and we went to meet the Nazim accompanied by the councillor of village Deval, next to our village, a man known for his honesty and justice, the Imam of the mosque near our house. We left the meeting elated with the positive result of the meeting.
Next day we received a call that the councillor would like to visit us for tea and visit the site of the health centre, in order to show his solidarity with us. Three hours after the promised time, the younger brother of the councillor arrived accompanied by armed bodyguards and 10 other men from the village. What shocked us was to see those men, who opposed our project, among them.
The brother apologized for the councillor who was unable to come. Then he requested me to step aside for some private conversation. We stood outside the gate and he started by offering his apologies for all the problems we had been facing. Then he quietly suggested that we should buy the plot of the land behind our house. The next thing he suggested was that the present contractor should be replaced by a contractor from the village. And since we lived in Kuwait, would it not be better that we hand over the project to them to run on our behalf?
I stood there astounded. Then to my astonishment, he casually mentioned that the owner of the land was a relative, and the contractor he suggested was also a relative, and since this was their area we had no right to do anything according to our wish.
My husband and I realized that those people only wanted to gain from our funds. Even if we built the health centre, ultimately they would have taken over our project by force. Several people tried to negotiate with them and requested them that the right to choose the contractor, or the decision to purchase the plot located behind the project site, were basically, our right.
Thus once again we left Bhurban with our dreams shattered.
