KARACHI, Sept 26: The city government, in a bid to provide lungs to the badly planned city of concrete high rises, has left behind the army when it comes to developing parks.

The city government has already developed over half-a-dozen model parks in different towns within two months time by utilizing the space earmarked for the purpose. But the army and the provincial government, who had been entrusted with the responsibility to develop three mega parks as 'gift' to the citizens, have failed to deliver despite a lapse of over two years.

On the eve of his presidential referendum in April 2002, President Gen Pervez Musharraf had promised to give the city a park, to be built on the Old Sabzi Mandi site. The land for the promised park was handed over to the army by the city government to save it from land-grabbers' mafia, and to develop it into a befitting park.

The army has also promised to develop the old race course ground into a unique botanical garden, where, besides recreational facilities, eco-tourism would be also offered to provide training opportunities to future botanists and horticulturalists. It would also have a comprehensive tissue-culture laboratory and a reference library.

The four old railways bungalows on the premises of race course, after carrying out restoration work, will be converted into four museums- City of Karachi Museum, Folk Art Museum, Modern Art Museum and Contemporary Art Museum. An open air theatre is also to be established there.

An information technology university, software enclosure and one-km-long food and folk street will also be built in the park, where artisan and craftsmen will work and display their skills.

The then 5-Corps Commander, Lt Gen Tariq Waseem Ghazi, had announced while unveiling its master plan in January-2003, that 120-acre botanical gardens would be completed between three and five years, at a cost of over one billion rupees, to be generated from the public and corporate sector.

The gardens would be a gift from the army to the recreation-starved people of the city, where many open spaces, parks, grounds etc, had been encroached upon by the greedy builders, land mafia and other vested interests.

The Defence Housing Authority has laid down infrastructure and a few orchards were developed, while a memorandum of understanding was also signed with a foreign firm to expedite work on the project and according to a DHA spokesman, so far 20 per cent development work has been carried out.

The third park is to be built at the site of Gutter Baghicha, which could not make headway due to lack of interest on part of the provincial government, and neglect shown by the concerned quarters, who failed to remove encroachments from the site.

The pace at which the old Sabzi Mandi site is being developed does not match the army's repute, earned by developing the Quaid-i-Azam mausoleum park. According to sources, the army requires many more months to convert the site into the promised Askari Park, while work on the botanical gardens is yet to start.

In addition to its main walkways, the park would have jogging and walking tracks, geyser fountain, children's play area, women' park, lake, seasonal garden, food courts, students' park, public facilities area, gymnasium, woodland, botanical garden, and an army museum.

A nursery has been developed near the site of the park, where hundreds of saplings are planted for transplantation after necessary development work in the park. The work of transplanting grass and some trees had also been initiated, which could not be completed for want of technical facilities.

The old Sabzi Mandi area, which has been named as Askari Park, originally covered 38 acres, but when it was handed over to the army, almost half of its area was found encroached upon or leased out to private owners of abandoned cold storages and factories.

According to sources close to concerned quarters, the development work could not make progress earlier for want of possession of the encroached plots, where some mosques and Madressas were built.

The old Sabzi Mandi open area, formally handed over to the Corps-5 for developing it into a Central Park in April 2001, spreads over 18 acres. At the time of its possession to the army, it was expected to be developed within 12 to 18 months.

Under the agreement signed between the Corps-5 Commander and City Nazim Naimatullah Khan, on April 3, 2001, the park was to be developed by the army from its own resources.

The city, which used to be the most modern and planned city in the region, due to mismanagement and failure of the administration in guarding its open spaces, had become the most polluted city of the country.

The Gutter Baghicha, originally spreading over 1,017-acres amenity plot, has now been reduced to some 480 acres, because of corruption, misuse of authority and growing vegetables dangerous for consumption of human beings.

Although the city government held a park-naming competition some time in May last year, no steps were taken to save the remaining open space, cancellation of illegal allotments and encroachments to restore the amenity plot and include it into the park.

The once sprawling sewage farm, where, according to Karachi Guide & Directory 1915, cereals, green fodder and vegetables were grown and sold at a considerable profit to the garden department of the then municipality, presented all sorts of encroachments done mostly with the connivance of unscrupulous public functionaries.

Located near the city centre, the amenity plot, described in the document as "The sewage farm" has been allowed, by successive city administrations to be progressively encroached upon by non-conforming users, including Katchi Abadis, marble workshops, industrial unit owners and also as dumping ground for all sort of garbage and filth from different towns of the city.

In numerous government maps and documents over the past 100 years the Baghicha had been shown as "Municipal Gardens", and the KMC budget documents of even 1993-94 show the income from Gutter Baghicha Park and the expenditure on a picnic corner and a recreation complex.