0
Praise be to Providence! The honourable chief justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Chaudhry, has heard the plea of the unheard deprived.
On June 29, the CJP was 'pleased to pass the following order Let the article published in daily Dawn dated 14-06-09 be treated as a petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Meanwhile, notices to parties in CP No.D-1740 of 2007 for 7th July 2009 in Court be also issued.' All concerned have been asked to appear before the Supreme Court at Islamabad on that day.
In the column referred to in the court order, I had made a plea to the good chief justice asking him to come to the aid of an endangered playground and the children of a deprived area of Karachi — Webb Ground in Tunisia Lines, an open area used for years by the low-income residents of the area and their children.
Full details of how the case had proceeded (or not proceeded) in the Sindh High Court since 2007 were given, highlighting the fact that it was deemed by the petitioners that justice had not been served and that there was a deliberate manipulation of facts. Once again, our chief justice has recognised the vital importance of the environment and of open spaces, of the need for cities to breathe, and has agreed to hear the case of the traditionally voiceless deprived.
It has been a long struggle. As recorded in my column published in this newspaper of record on Feb 18, 2007 'There are few open spaces which remain in this highly polluted sewerage and garbage-strewn city of Karachi. The parks, playgrounds, roads, graveyards, railway yards, beaches and other amenity areas are being swiftly and deliberately encroached upon and are increasingly becoming easy prey for greedy, ignorant, couldn't-care-less, well-connected land-grabbers.
'One current example is Webb Ground, a five-acre playing field in Tunisia Lines, off Shahrah-i-Faisal, opposite the Christian cemetery. Long used as an institutional sports field by Karachi Grammar School, it was integrated into the Lines Area Redevelopment Scheme in the mid-1980s and used as a playground for the neighbourhood. In disregard of all that is proper, this amenity plot has now been leased to the Army Welfare Trust which in further disregard of what is proper, correct and lawful has sub-leased it to a concern known as Makro-Habib which will build upon it a gigantic 'Cash & Carry Store'. The local residents, whose children have been deprived of an open playfield and 'lung space', plan to challenge this illicit conversion in court.'
Then, in my column the following week 'The final paragraph of last week's column also told of the 'commercialisation' of the five-acre Webb playfield in the Lines Area of Karachi by the Army Welfare Trust and Makro-Habib for the construction of a 'Cash & Carry Store'. It emerges that Makro-Habib is an old hand at the conversion of amenity spaces.
'A number of residents of Model Town Society in Lahore have been battling in the Lahore High Court for the past year over the 'commercialisation' by Makro-Habib of 80 kanals (10 acres) of a garden plot in their society.
'Quoted herewith is an excerpt from the Nov 11 2006 observations of the learned single judge, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, in the judgment handed down in the writ petition dealing with the issue 'Similarly it was also stressed very vehemently that the proposed project constitutes economic growth and will bring financial benefit to the country, city and the locality.
'In this behalf, suffice it to say that no doubt foreign investment is to be encouraged but foreign investors are not above the law and must conform to laws of the land and must necessarily also exhibit sensitivity to the rights and privileges of the inhabitants of the area.
'The learned counsel for the petitioner has rightly drawn the distinction between growth and development. The two concepts are not synonymous and all growth must be measured against the collateral damage accrued thereby. Even otherwise, growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell'.'
To silence the publicity, in July Makro-Habib and the Army Welfare Trust filed Suit No.926/2007 against Shehri, myself and others in the Sindh High Court pleading that all be restrained 'from interfering with the use and enjoyment of the subject land by the plaintiffs for commercial purposes in any manner whatsoever'. Further, they asked for a permanent injunction restraining us from 'continuing with the campaign of harassment and vilification through print or electronic media and in oral or written mode' so that we may not cause loss or damage to the reputation of the plaintiffs. Justice prevailed. The court did not oblige.
In August 2007 area resident Mehfooz-un-Nabi Khan filed his constitutional petition in the Sindh High Court, and at the first hearing Shehri was called in by the honourable judges, Sarmad Usmany and Ali Sain Dino Metlo, to assist the court and appear as a co-petitioner. Now, thanks to the concern and magnanimity of the chief justice for the less fortunate of this land of ours, the case will be heard in Islamabad this coming week.
Shehri and the area residents will be represented in court by advocate Mansoor Ali Shah who will rise and plead pro bono publico. Our gratitude, and that of the residents of Tunisia Lines, goes out to Chief Justice Chaudhry, who has proven time and time again that he, like I, has respect for the words of the founder of this God-given man-made country, Mohammad Ali Jinnah — that the first and foremost duty of any government is to impose and maintain law and order.
