THE Sindh Environmental Protection Agency’s approval for the controversial Malir Expressway in Karachi makes a mockery of due process. Nothing is being gained by providing a quasi-legal cover to an ill-advised development project. In fact, the decision is unfair on people living near the expressway site as well as the environment. The approval comes a year after construction began, in pursuance of the chief minister’s instructions to local government authorities to complete the 15-kilometre-long portion up to the city’s Quaidabad area by the end of this year. The total cost of the project — which will link posh residential areas on the outskirts of Karachi to the Karachi-Hyderabad motorway and the main city — is estimated to be a massive Rs27.5bn.

However, the project has been launched without the input of local stakeholders, leading to questions raised by local residents and activists regarding the fallout of the controversial project. In fact, the Sindh government plans to acquire more land for the construction of the highway, which is sure to adversely affect both residential areas and fertile agricultural land in Malir. Reportedly, around 24 pre-partition villages, including fishing villages dating back to 1914, and over 2,300 acres of farmland could be destroyed during construction. This agricultural strip is said to be one of the few surviving green belts in Karachi, supplying most of the city’s fruit and vegetables. Meanwhile, environmental activists claim that between 1,800 and 1,900 plants and trees, 176 species of birds and 73 butterfly species among other wildlife, would also be affected by the building of the expressway. The provincial authorities would be well advised not to disregard the concerns of citizens lest they want the project to meet the fate of the Ravi Riverfront initiative in Lahore that was struck down by the courts. Instead, the Sindh authorities should ask themselves whether earlier projects — particularly the Lyari Expressway which uprooted nearly 77,000 families, most of whom still await the promised compensation — were able to serve the intended purpose.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2022