Last month, a division bench of the Lahore High Court ordered suspension of construction on the multi-billion-dollar Orange Line Metro Train within 200 feet of 11 heritage sites.
Despite the order, residents of the area have not heaved a sigh of relief because their homes have either been razed to the ground or are likely to be razed soon due to the construction work.
In the old Anarkali bazaar area, which is the constituency of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, lots of homes have been razed due to the project – approximately 7,000 houses that the residents had been living in since the Partition. Old buildings have been razed to the ground and the remaining residents and shopkeepers are apprehensive that their houses and shops will also be demolished despite resistance.
Locals said their own leader whom they voted in was displacing them. They even voted for the PML-N in by-elections before construction work on the Orange Line project started.
On the other hand, government officials claimed they acquired land from the locals by offering them money and had bought the houses before demolishing them. Except for a few families, all residents willingly sold their houses to whom they paid handsomely so they could settle elsewhere in the city, they claimed.
Ali, a local, does not agree. “Who wants to leave his home where he or she has been living for decades? Most residents did not leave their homes willingly. They were afraid that their homes will be razed whether they take the money or not. Therefore, except for accepting the money, they did not have any other choice.”
He alleged that he, along with two families, did not give up despite the fact that he was intimidated into coercion.
“I campaigned against the project because this development is not for us, and it is displacing us,” he added.
In the Anarkali area, people either belong to middle class or lower middle class and work as rickshaw drivers, clerks, shopkeepers, labourers, vegetable vendors etc. When they accepted ‘compensation’ against demolition of their houses, they say they were unaware of the fact that getting settled elsewhere in the city will not be easy for them. In a nutshell, they are left marooned.
Hidayatullah, an octogenarian, lives at his daughter’s house. He and his wife Hanifa Bibi did not want to sell and see their house demolished. But when his wife died recently, his son got her thumbprint on a paper and sold the house.
One of the residents, Amna Bibi, says: “I had bought my house after much hardship with my late husband’s hard-earned money. He was a driver, and I started saving from his salary to buy a house for our children. We eventually managed to buy and started living in it, but are now being asked by the government to spare it for development of the city.”
She further added: “I do not want to leave the house where my husband died; I do not want to sell it, nor can someone buy it; I want to see my children grow up in the same house; I will resist whatever the cost may be.”
Ali’s forefathers were from the princely Kapurthala state during the British era. His grandfather migrated to Lahore and settled in the Anarkali area after Partition. “We do not want to migrate again even if it is in the same city. But we are being asked to sacrifice our houses for development. What more sacrifices do they want now? We voted and elected the prime minister and MPA Majid Zahoor of the PML-N,” Ali added. “We voted for them not to get displaced or intimidated by them.”
He regrets that opposition leaders from their areas also joined the government instead of lending them a hand. That is why, he said, they have to fight single-handedly for their abodes.
Ali concludes: “We read and hear that the Orange Line Metro Train is a gift from the all-weather friend China. But I wonder if this is a gift then what will be its scourge?”
Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2016