KARACHI: A multiparty conference (MPC) on Sunday termed Bahria Town Karachi (BTK) “illegal and unconstitutional” and unanimously rejected it as an anti-Sindh project which, it said, was a modern form of colonisation.

Representatives of nationalist parties of Sindh and Balochistan, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Communist Party attended the event held on the outskirts of the city in Hadi Bux Gabol Goth on the call of the Indigenous Rights Alliance.

The MPC also demanded cancellation of 500 FIRs registered against villagers and action against police officers.

A resolution adopted by the participants said that the BTK had illegally occupied lands and demanded that the construction works be stopped.

The participants were of the view that the Supreme Court itself had in 2018 declared BTK illegal. However, they regretted that the implementation bench of the apex court legalised the BTK project. They urged the apex court to withdraw this decision.

They demanded that all those whose houses and villages had been destroyed be compensated as per the market rate.

They recalled that the Sindh government had given 43 dehs to the Malir Development Authority in 2013 and demanded that this notification be rejected and the dehs be restored to their original position.

The MPC also supported a sit-in to be organised by the Sindh Action Committee at BTK’s main gate on June 6 and said that protests would be held in district headquarters on June 27.

The participants said they believed the BTK was part of an invasion of global capitalism.

Prominent among those who attended the MPC were Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, Dr Qadir Magsi, Dr Abdul Hayee Baloch, Yusuf Masti Khan, Karam Wassan, Illahi Bux, Nawaz Zaur, Riaz Chandio, Gul Hasan Kalmati, Amanullah Shaikh, Aijaz Mangi, Salma Junejo and Pariyal Dayo.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2021