KARACHI, March 3: People and families to be displaced by the construction of the Lyari Expressway will be rehabilitated at Hawkesbay in a better environment and with job opportunities, said the City Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, while speaking at an Awami Assembly on Sunday at Karachi Press Club.

The assembly was largely attended by those affected by the expressway project.

Mr Khan said a new design of the project had been approved by the Karachi City District Government and the National Highway Authority. The new design would be made public in a couple of days.

He categorically stated that there would be no further demarcation and alignment. But he did not elaborate on this.

The Nazim said the city government would always keep the interest of the people of Karachi supreme.

He said: “The project is in the collective interest of the city and the country. There would no injustice to any section of the people.”

Mr Khan said the government was striving to provide better living conditions to the people, instead of making them to continue to live in dirty surroundings. This created uproar among the audience who shouted that they should not be shifted somewhere else.

Due to continued disturbances, the Nazim had to cut short his speech. The organizers tried to calm down the audience, but a large number of them left the venue in protest.

Earlier, Fahim Zaman, a former administrator of the defunct KMC, gave a brief account of the objectives of the project, saying the project had been prepared keeping a number of factors into consideration, particularly the flooding situation in the Lyari river and other stormwater drains in the city.

The project was aimed at channelling the Lyari river which was the main disposal source in the city, and it had been proposed that the expressway be constructed in a way that it should not cause largescale dislocation of people.

“The project is in the interest of the city and the collective interest of the people. Those to be displaced by the project should be provided alternative plots,” he emphasized.

The Nazim of Site Town, Amir Nawab Khan, criticized the role of the NHA for “messing up” the project, saying that “the NHA is responsible for creating the present situation by including Hasan Aulia village and some portions of graveyards in its anti-encroachment drive scheme which caused unrest among the people.”

Earlier, speakers, including Baseer Naveed, the chairman of the Action Committee for Civic Problems, presiding over the meeting, called for handing over the project to the city government for its execution.

A large number of NGOs’ representatives from Lyari and Trans-Lyari, including of the Baloch Rabita Ittefaq Tehrik, was also present on the occasion.

The Awami Assembly also adopted a number of resolutions calling upon the government to stop the execution of the new revised plan and to take effective and urgent measures for the rehabilitation of the affected people.

It was decided that a human chain would be formed on March 18 along the route of the expressway as a mark of protest and to highlight the issues of rehabilitation and compensation.