KARACHI: “It is always better to come to the park for walks and exercises in the morning. It is even better if you do it at the crack of dawn,” says Mohammad Shoaib Salfi as he bends down to tie his shoe laces, which have come undone.

It is early evening at the Aziz Bhatti Park, one of the older parks of the city in Gulshan-i-Iqbal with a walking track, green grass, tress and benches placed near the trees. Some people walk, some jog and some sit and relax as they make small talk on the benches. There are also a few stretched out on the grass for sit-ups and push-ups. Meanwhile, a few children giggle as they chase one another running among the trees.

Salfi places a leg on a bench and leans forward to stretch his muscles after a brisk walk. “I know, like me, not everyone has the time to head to a park in the morning but if they can, it is very beneficial. One hour of exercising in the park in the morning on an empty stomach is equivalent to two hours of the same kind of exercise in the evening,” says the fitness-conscious man.

The Jheel Park in PECHS is another favourite haunt of people. Those who are lucky enough to live near it come here every day. “Tariq Road is a busy area of the city with lots of air pollution due to so much traffic. But there s no pollution in the park among so much greenery here,” says Nafisa Ahmed, who is there with her children and neighbourhood friends. “The trees absorb all the unhealthy and harmful gases and release clean oxygen. We come here usually in the evenings because it is convenient to get out of the house then. Afterward we may stop by for some snacks or maybe a bit of window shopping on our way back home,” she says.

“I would never head out to the park in the evening because that is the time you find all kinds of shady people there,” says Abdul Basit, a resident of Clifton, who lives almost next to Bagh Ibne Qasim. “Sometimes there is no light there but even if the lights are on, I don’t go. The grass there has dried up anyway, and the broken boundary walls at several points cannot stop the thieves, who deprive people of their mobile phones, from going inside. The same is the case with the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park on the other side. Still, we go to have snacks such as roasted chickpeas and corn on the cob,” from the pushcarts outside them,” he says.

Ilyas Hussain, a property consultant, says that property prices can go up as well as down if there is a park in the vicinity. “It all depends on the type of park, actually. If you live in phase four of DHA near the Nisar Shaheed Park or the Aunty Park in Clifton, your property price will be up. It is because the park is well-maintained and the authorities remain vigilant that no suspicious persons enter it,” he says.

“On the other hand, there is the Aram Bagh in Saddar, where you find all kinds of folk. There is also the Jahangir Park, which is only now being cleaned out. No one living near these parks, and most certainly not women, felt comfortable exercising or walking there be it morning or evening. So the price of property is also down there,” he says.

Published in Dawn November 6th, 2016