ACCORDING to Bahraini newspapers, the Pakistani community in Bahrain is rallying to coordinate relief efforts and an appeal to the community has gone out. Another appeal has been made to the expatriate community in Bahrain to donate through the prime minister’s relief fund.

Newspaper reports, for unknown but obvious reasons, found it necessary to clarify that the “diplomats say currently no community organisation is authorised to raise funds for the relief efforts”.

During Pakistan’s worst floods in 2010, according to a newspaper, Muzaffargarh in Punjab was the worst hit when the city was almost washed away by the floods. As one can expect, several ‘fund-raisers’ cropped up from nowhere, majority of whom were aimed at cashing in on the opportunity and sufferings of the others. The government at the time appealed to the people and the Pakistanis abroad to come forward and help the government.

All over the world, Pakistanis geared up. Some, calling themselves social workers, also came out in Bahrain, and called affluent Pakistanis, mostly businessmen, for a meeting at the Pakistan Club in Manama. The audience was told that a new city was planned in place of the devastated Muzaffargarh, and it was to be given the name of Manama Town.

The audience was shown drawings of the proposed city and the design of the houses that were supposedly to be built there. The framed photos of these proposed houses remained for years on the walls of the Pakistan Club. The audience was encouraged to participate in the ‘national cause’ and buy the said housing units. Some active members of the fund-raising campaign ‘bought’ some units there and then to establish credibility. My two late colleagues in the audience also purchased one unit each.

A committee was formed to oversee the progress, which, if memories in this old age are not failing me, visited Muzaffargarh more than once as well as Lahore for negotiations with the ‘authorities concerned’. Many years ago, by chance I met one such member in a supermarket and I enquired as to what happened to the said project. He told me there was no further progress and was not aware of what the end result was. The so-called Manama Town never saw the light of the day.

This reminds me of another incident. The Mehran Town housing scheme in Karachi, exclusively for overseas Pakistanis, was announced by the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Today, almost 99 per cent of the land of the housing colony, situated along the embankment of Malir river in Karachi, is occupied by various mafias with the backing of the relevant agencies.

This area is now home to illegal factories and industrial units that have sprung up there. I am one of the victims. Right from the mid-1970s, the relevant development agency every year spends millions, as per the official files, on the development of the land, which was never visible to the allottees like me.

When the matter still had ‘news’ value, the agency concerned was under constant criticism over its claims of development, but in 1978-79 the Malir river broke its banks and the adjoining areas experienced a sort of flood. That gave the perfect opportunity to the agency to hide its malpractice, arguing that the floods washed away all the development that was supposedly done in over a decade.

The Manama Town never got started. The Mehran Town never became a housing colony. Where has all the money gone; the money that was paid by unsuspecting overseas Pakistanis?

The recent floods have given a chance to the corrupt elements once again. One would do well to be wary of such elements.

Name withheld on request
Manama, Bahrain

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2022