'The destruction of trees and commercialisation of amenity spaces is a highly lucrative business for the greedy top dogs who can call whatever shots they may choose,' writes Cowasjee. – APP Photo

A SEPT 4 Dawn headline warns us: ‘World heads for climate abyss: UN’. After a visit to the Arctic to witness the havoc caused by climate change, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated at the World Climate Conference in Geneva, 'Our foot is stuck on the accelerator and we are heading towards an abyss.'

Have the politicians and administrators of Pakistan even begun to realise the extent and nature of the problem? One of our contributions to environmental degradation and climate change is the arbitrary and illegal conversion of land use by our transient movers and shakers — the destruction of trees and commercialisation of amenity spaces is a highly lucrative business for the greedy top dogs who can call whatever shots they may choose.

To quote from my column of May 9, 1999 entitled ‘Glass Lions’: 'The same Supreme Court bench that issued the Glass Towers demolition order has saved a people’s park in Karachi. The Costa Livina case dates back to 1990, to the first PPP regime. [Two politicians, one now absconding] aided by cronies, managed to obtain permission to build a high-rise commercial-cum-residential complex within the bounds of the Jehangir Kothari Clifton Park (renamed Bagh-i-Ibn-Qasim). The plot in the park upon which they were allowed to build their illegal structure had originally been designated for the construction of a tower with a revolving restaurant atop, similar to the towers built in parks in Toronto, Hamburg and other cities.'The people’s parks are inviolable and must not be desecrated by commercial constructions. The politicians involved manipulated approval for their commercial venture on the plea that they would install a revolving restaurant on the top of the building. Many of us realised that this would never happen. We knew all about the building opposite the Services Club on Victoria Road. When the politician-owner-builder applied for permission and submitted his plans he duped the authorities into believing that the top two floors would be used for car-parking and that cars would be taken up in elevators. No such thing ever happened.'

The building of the Costa Livina complex was initially, in the early 1990s, opposed by a Karachi Development Authority officer, Khalid Mukhtar. After writing his dissenting note he was threatened and informed that he would be hounded out of his job. The citizens went to the courts. Construction started, it was stopped by the next regime, started again, stopped again, and so it went on.

During the second PPP government, political cohorts succeeded not only in getting Mukhtar out of his job, but also out of the country. Luckily for him, an honest well-qualified man, he has done far better in the US than he would ever have done here.

Costa Livina, owned by Pearl Builders, remained a half-built construction, a six-storey shell. On May 3, 1999 the Supreme Court ordered that the structure be demolished and the builders concerned submit a new plan for the construction of a tower and restaurant only, a construction that would be for the enjoyment of the people, rather than a money-making machine for the unscrupulous time and again 'freely and fairly' elected people’s representatives.

This was merely chapter one of the Costa Livina saga. Pearl Builders decided to fight the Supreme Court order in the Karachi Building Control Authority and the Sindh High Court. Over the next 10 years, the builders submitted various revised and alternate plans incorporating the six-storey shell into their new revolving-restaurant tower design and filed cases in the high court in an effort to save his illegal structure (and plot) by delaying justice until 'better political times.'

One suit filed in the Sindh High Court by Pearl Builders in Oct 2006, Suit 1988/06, challenged the city government demand of Rs12.8m as regularisation fee under the Sindh Government (Cancellation of Allotments, Conversions & Exchanges) Ordinance 2000.The stay order obtained has effectively blocked any further action to implement the earlier demolition order of the Supreme Court.

At the last hearing on Aug 6, 2009, the division bench was informed that Pearl Builders is negotiating with the city government for the allotment of an alternate plot, and was allowed one month to do so by Chief Justice Sarmad Osmany and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah.

Through all this, one must admire the tenacity of Barrister ‘Gilbert’ Naim-ur-Rahman who has been on the case for the past 16 years. The patience and doggedness he has exhibited in public-interest issues is unmatched. When the Sindh High Court finally decides to allow implementation of the 1999 order of the Supreme Court it will be in no small measure due to Gilbert and his dedication.

Another public-interest petition that was heard for four days in the Supreme Court this past week concerned the commercialised five-acre playground being used in Lines Area by the Makro-Habib superstore, which has been assailed by Shehri and various area residents. The counsel of the Military Estates Officer tried to convince the three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudry, sitting with Justices Ghulam Rabbani and Jawwad Khawaja, that the plot was not an amenity space, and that its commercialisation and leasing to the Army Welfare Trust for a premium of Rs0.6m was kosher.

The AWT lawyer also attempted to persuade the judges that renting the ‘commercial plot’ to Makro-Habib for one per cent of the superstore’s turnover was lawful. The case has been adjourned to Sept 30 at the request of Makro-Habib’s lawyer, who may then have better luck at presenting his viewpoint.

The wheels of justice turn slowly but surely!

arfc@cyber.net.pk