KARACHI, Feb 26: Former City Nazim Naimatullah Khan on Monday condemning the government’s plans to convert the Kidney Hill and Gutter Baghicha lands from amenity to commercial / residential purposes has demanded that these anti-people plans be abolished. He was speaking at a press conference held at Idara Noor-i-Haq.

The speakers also condemned the government and said that some civic minded concerned people who had challenged this conversion in a court of law had been threatened and were forced to withdraw their cases. They said that they would move the court against this theft of public spaces.

They these lands, worth billions of rupees, were reserved for amenities purposes and parks were to be developed on these sites, but the government was robbing the citizens of these open and green spaces which were absolutely necessary for healthy cities to counter the ever increasing atmospheric pollution.

They said that under a March 26, 2002 Sindh government notification, an amenity plot could not be used for any other purpose, other than for which it had been reserved. He said that earlier under a Martial Law notification (Feb 8, 1982) conversion of the Kidney Hill from park to residential purposes had been banned.

They said that the government on November 11, 2005 had repealed the Sindh Disposal of Urban Land Ordinance 2002 which has exposed the intentions of the government that it wanted to convert all amenity plots in the city into commercial and residential plots so that the rulers could pocket billions of rupees in the process.

They said that it was very unfortunate that the rulers themselves have turned in to robbers and have taken up the role of land mafia, but now the citizens have woken up and they would stop this theft.

Giving some background of the issue, the speakers said that originally the total land of Kidney Hill was 62 acres, but seven acres had been encroached and now out of the remaining 55 acres, 20 acres were being given to a cooperative society for residential purposes under an illegal agreement, the rest was being converted in to commercial and residential plots.

They said that similarly the valuable Gutter Baghicha land was being distributed among the officials, though President General Musharraf had announced that Gutter Baghicha would be made a model park.

They said that they would not let the government rob citizens of their open spaces. They also condemned the government for failing to provide safety and security to the concerned citizens who were trying to protect these precious lands from land grabbers by moving the courts.

They said that these concerned citizens were threatened to take back their cases and members of an NGO that is active in protecting the city lands and is also a party to this case in the court were also being threatened to withdraw its case. The NGO’s office was attacked and its chief (who still has a bullet in his body) and others were injured when the builders’ mafia opened fire many years back for resisting the construction of an illegal high rise building in the vicinity.

They also urged the superior judiciary to take notice of the fact how the concerned citizens and NGOs which were trying to protect the rights of the people were being threatened. They also urged the authorities to take notice, and stop this illegal act, of the Sindh government and the city government.

Mr Khan; chief of Al-Khidmat Group in the City Council, Rafiq Khan; MMA MNA Mohammad Hussain Mehnati; MPAs Nasrullah Shajji, Yunus Barai and Gulshan-i-Iqbal UC 1 nazim Junaid Mukati spoke on the occasion.