KARACHI, Jan 7: The fate of over 1,000 Goths of Karachi hangs in the balance as bureaucracy is dragging feet over the vital issue linked to socioeconomic survival of millions of Karachiites living in these slums roughly comprising 40 per cent of this largest city of Pakistan.

The issue of kutchi abadis in Karachi is as old as the country itself. A lion’s share of Muslim population that migrated from India to Pakistan settled in Karachi. During the 1940s and 1950s extensive unorganized land invasion led to the establishment of extensive kutchi abadis on the then Karachi periphery and on open urban lands. The 1960s and 1970s increased rural-urban migration through urban pull factors.

Interestingly, later generations of those, who migrated from India and created early kutchi abadis in Karachi are now demanding that the kutchi abadis surfaced after 1985 should not be regularized.

According to government sources, 1,293 kutchi abadis emerged after March 23, 1985 and of them 1,157 were eligible for regularization under the Sindh Katchi Abadis Act 1987. Of them, 932 abadis have been notified while residents of 750 kutchi abadis granted proprietary rights. However, the exact number of kutchi abadis is much more than what the government record shows.

It is an undeniable fact that urban uplift is directly linked to socio-economic development of any society. Karachi could be made an international urban city only when its slums are developed and brought at par with regularized area in terms of civic facilities and infrastructure development.

Sources said the concerned quarters in the provincial government were deliberately putting this issue on the back burner, as a particular political entity in Karachi was opposing regularization of kutchi abadis that emerged after 1985. They said they feared that regularization of these localities would provide their political opponents with a formidable vote bank in Karachi.

However, the issue of slums is more human than political in nature. It is poverty and acute lack of new housing schemes that was behind mushroom growth of goths, slums and kutchi abadis in Karachi. Various efforts to raze these settlements during the year 2006 showed that this issue could not be settled by brutal use of force. One of the examples is the operation of razing Sikandar Goth near Sohrab Goth, which not only resulted in loss of life, but also forced the city government to swallow bitter pill of retreat.

After the Sikandar Goth incident, Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim formed a goth regularization committee headed by Sindh Minister for Mineral Resources Irfanullah Khan Marwat. Though the committee convened several meetings its formal report is still awaited. On November 15, 2006, the committee discussed the issue of regularization of villages and decided to expedite the task.

Irfanullah Khan Marwat told the meeting that 808 Sindh goths were in Karachi, out of them 458 goths had already been regularized by issuing ownership rights to 51,421 villagers, while the remaining 350 goths would be regularized soon. He said the goth regularization process was being carried out on merit basis and regularization of old Sindhi goths of Karachi was in process with accelerated pace.

However, despite such meetings the issue of goth regularization in Karachi was practically in limbo, asserted the sources.

To resolve the issue of slum areas, not only the kutchi abadis be regularized, but more housing schemes on the lines of Taiser Town should be introduced to meet yawning demand of housing in Karachi.

According to the Economic Survey 2005-2006, the housing backlog, which stood at 4.30 million as per housing census in 1998, has been currently projected at 6.19 million. For meeting the housing shortfall in the next 20 years, the overall housing production has to be increased to 500,000 housing units annually.

According to the survey, provision of shelter to every family has become a major issue as a result of rapid urbanization and higher population growth. Hence this issue will stay till regularization of goths, kutchi abadis and slums of Karachi and provisio of low-cost residential plots in bulk to the poor.

Uprooting of slums by bulldozing houses, huts and shanties is a short-term solution. The poor have no choice but to encroach on land for shelter.

The early and amicable regularization of slums would not only beautify Karachi and give it a true civic and urban look, but it would also greatly contribute to the government kitty in shape of regularization and lease revenue. More importantly, it would solve a lingering human problem and develop sense of unity, brotherhood and fraternity among people having different cultural, linguistic and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Regularization of goths would not make any dint in vote bank of local political entities, but rather increase it in the shape of more confidence of residents of these localities who would take this step as a token of goodwill and benevolence on the part of dominant political entities of Karachi.—PPI