KARACHI: “I can’t eat when I think about little children who are not eating because their parents have lost their means of income,” said Dr Kaiser Bengali.

The renowned economist was among the respected members of civil society holding a day-long hunger strike and sit-in outside the Karachi Press Club on Sunday to protest against the ongoing anti-encroachment drive and to spread awareness of its adverse effects that “is not just bulldozing shops but snatching the livelihoods of poor people”.

Dr Bengali said that 99 per cent of the people displaced due to the anti-encroachment drive were daily-wagers.”You may close down a big business and its owners will be worried about their profit, but what about the employees there? They just lose work. They are hurt the most here. They were not making thousands to see them through the entire month, they depended on the little money they got in exchange for daily labour,” he said.

‘This is not really an encroachment issue, but an issue of lack of planning’

“Sadly, these employees have no cover, no job letters or security, and they have nowhere to go now,” he said. “What to talk about anti-encroachment, I don’t understand this anti-poor sentiment, which is only helping increase unemployment here,” he added.

“And all this supposedly illegal encroachment was also allowed by the authorities themselves in exchange for bribes. The authorities who benefited from bribes then came back to demolish the shops,” he said.

Senior architect and town planner Arif Hasan said that every city has a character and the encroachments in Karachi were a part of Karachi’s character. “The entire city of Karachi is an encroachment because the government didn’t give things such as cargo terminals, warehouses, bus stops, bachat bazaars, etc., to this city. So these things just came up on their own, haphazardly, wherever the need for them was felt anywhere. Some 30pc to 40pc of Karachi’s economy is informal and 70pc of jobs here generate very good revenue,” he said.

“This is not really an encroachment issue but an issue of lack of planning. There is space for street markets, etc, here which can still be incorporated like they are in cities all over the world such as Paris, Barcelona, Seoul, New York, etc,” he said.

“And yes, these things could not have come up with the support of politicians and police,” he backed Dr Bengali’s words. “Now they are after the historic Urdu Bazaar. They say that it has been built over a drain. But there are houses of rich people also built on drains. There is a hospital I know which belongs to and MPA, which has also been built over a drain. So why not demolish them too? Why be so selective?” he questioned.

Dr Riaz Sheikh, dean, faculty of social sciences at Szabist, also stated that the people whose shops had been destroyed and whose shops were in danger of being demolished now had been there for over 50 years. “During these years they have been paying rents to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation,” he said.

Uzma Noorani, co-chairperson, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, that there was a need to understand the plight of the poor affected by the anti-encroachment drive. “The affectees of this drive, such as the poor women who used to sell dried fruits and vegetables at Empress Market, need our support until they are resettled somewhere. There is place for small vendors everywhere in the world then why not here,” she asked.

A resettlement action plan needed

Syed Mohammad Ali Shah, advocate for the Karachi Circular Railway Affectees Action Committee, said that in 2009, Pakistan Railways conducted a survey to determine how many colonies and houses would be affected in restoring the circular railway. “There were 4,653 house structures that were said to be demolished but there was also a resettlement action plan in place for the people living in those houses. For it they had kept aside 283 acres of land where they were going to build 80 square yard RCC houses along with Rs50,000 for each family to be used by them for shifting and transportation, but there is no mention of all that now as they tell the poor people settled around the railway lines to move,” he said.

Karamat Ali of Piler said every citizen of Pakistan had got fundamental rights of living a decent life and residence. The Supreme Court order to demolish shops and homes “is against the fundamental rights of people”.

Rights activist Naghma Iktedar said that there was also a need to make an estimate of the losses incurred by those who lost their jobs as a result of the drive. “It has been an inhumane move from the start. Is this what ‘Naya Pakistan’ is?” she said.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2019