KARACHI: Early on Thursday all the roads leading to the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) offices in Phase 1 were found blocked by containers. Still it could not stop the protestors from coming and raising their demands at noon.

On reaching North Circular Avenue, which led to the office’s front gate, the protestors were taken aback to find so much security. With helmets, bulletproof vests, shields, the policemen had come prepared for a riot. And they were also accompanied by 50 or 60 women police constables. At the Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) office on Monday there was no female police and the policeman could not stop the women protestors from climbing over the CBC gates and unlatching it for the men to push their way through. The protestors at the DHA office were not that many in number as they were at the CBC office.

“This is a peaceful protest. Protesting is our right. But it is so strange to find so much security and riot police for a handful of unarmed residents asking to put to good use with a better infrastructure the huge sums of money, which they pay as house tax, refurbishment charges, etc,” said Sarah Nadeem, a resident of Phase 5 who said that her mother was stranded for six days after the rains in her house in Phase 6 near Khayaban-i-Shujaat. She had a megaphone in hand, which she then handed to the other protestors to have their say.

Call for FIR registered against protesters to be taken back

Naeem Sadiq, a resident of Phase 5 said that there were also certain other things besides what came up during the rains that bothered him as a resident. “All over the world water is supplied through pipelines. But here we buy it from tankers. I wish the DHA and CBC bought it if it was so scarce to fill up their tanks and then supply it to us through the pipeline since we do pay water tax,” he said.

After some time orders from inside resulted in forklifts moving the containers away. But it was done very dangerously as the unsteady lifter lifted them up over the heads of the people who had to hurriedly move away.

Suddenly, there was also a truckload of plastic chairs brought in and laid around the small roundabout on North Circular Avenue for the protestors to sit on. But none of them accepted the hospitality. Those who were tired, especially the elderly, preferred sitting on the hard pavements instead. “Next we’ll probably see them put up a sabeel here to complete the picture,” guffawed one of the protestors.

But suddenly, there was help from above. The sweltering heat of the sun lessened somewhat with the clouds as a gentle breeze started to blow as the protestors requested the DHA administrator to at least come outside and hear them out. Yet, no such thing happened.

Annoyed then they chanted slogans such as “Take back the FIR” and “Refund taxes if you cannot provide services” with intermittent cries of “shame, shame”. After the last protest held outside the CBC offices, there was also an FIR lodged against the residents for hooliganism which the protestors were not happy about.

“We are not doing politics here. We have come here with genuine demands. As residents of your area and as DHA members we have our rights. We know our rights. But we think that the DHA and CBC have forgotten them. They have even forgotten us,” said one resident.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2020