THE cat is finally out of the bag. At a top-level meeting of officers of Government of Sindh (GoS), on August 25, the Governor of Sindh directed the concerned departments to prepare a “master plan” for development of the land strip along Karachi Northern Bypass (KNBP).
To facilitate the process, the Governor directed that the land be transferred to CDGK which is currently run by an appointed administration.
This is not an unexpected decision. The Governor was probably waiting for the completion of tenure of the former CDGK regime.
In a lavishly organized housing industry exhibition (29-31 July, 2005), the chief controller of buildings unveiled an ambitious land utilization plan for the 56 km long Karachi Northern Bypass. It included land supply schemes for a wide variety of stakeholders such as diplomats, jurists, government officers, workers, journalists and even low income groups. The stretch of vacant land on either side of KNBP was included in this planning exercise. The timing was just appropriate for this impending venture.
The rational urban development cannot happen by opening up precious land reserves for random development. It requires careful and cautious urban and regional planning input in consonance with existing realities. A different course of action is needed.
Land transactions in Karachi and elsewhere are marked inappropriate decision making. These decisions, which are likely to have far-reaching consequences on the overall city performance, are whimsical at best. For instance, a port authority in Karachi announced the creation of an industrial estate along a sub-urban location. This was probably done to please a certain interests group in Karachi and the high ups of the federal government.
It was soon found out that the land in question was owned by another government department which refused to hand over the allocation and control. This led to the involvement of higher judiciary which stayed the proceedings of the development of the proposed scheme. As happens in such situation, the federal government applied its clout and is attempting to coerce the land owning department to agree to a forced land transaction.
Many more similar instances are bound to emerge under the reckless move of selling state land reserves to make quick bucks. This must be carefully reviewed by the concerned quarters before the vital government departments lose all their lands needed for their operational assignments.
Previously the so- called land grabbers would connive with the state officials to sub- divide and distribute such peri-urban land lying unutilized for quite some time. They would mobilize instant occupation and settlement on these lands and provided the basic safeguard / protection in collusion with the personnel of law-enforcement agencies.
Most of the third generation squatters settlements in Karachi, that evolved during and after 1970, thrived through this approach. In many cases, the agricultural land which was privately owned by the small scale land lords was forcibly colonised in the same manner. The tactics of operation have changed.
Knowing too well that land is a high value precious commodity possessing direct interests of powerful stakeholders, the so- called land supply mafia tends to involve all who matter. In other words, its modus operandi has become much more sophisticated. Operations of this mafia group prepares well laid down land supply proposals, in association with professionals, for targeted locations. These proposals are backed by estimates of revenue and expenditure as well as the proportional share of profit likely to be accrued by each of the parties.
Obviously, the scale of profit lures the stakeholders to join hands to forge the alliance. Thus a new land sale enterprise springs up without any regard about its sustenance, relevance to the city planning and development norms and the possible availability of infrastructure. Losers in this game are the city dwellers who are deprived of an appropriate land use management.
Ironically, the government functionaries are a party to this quasi-legal practice. Some departments even bypass their mandate. For instance, the KBCA was created under Section 4 of the Sindh Building Control Ordinance of 1979 in a bid to safeguard the building and zoning practices in the Karachi metropolitan area. It was supposed to enforce the building and town planning regulations according to the prescription of concerned land development/owning authority.
Now, the KBCA is acting as a de-facto master planning agency for the city – an act which is devoid of common sense. In accordance with the provisions of Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2002, all the local departments were to be merged with the CDGK with their enacting laws repealed by the Sindh legislature.
However, vested interests succeeded in transforming KBCA into a supra – local body by resisting the devolution and repeal of SBCO, 1979. The results are obvious. Instead of following the development prescriptions and monitoring guidelines of CDGK regime throughout its tenure, KBCA drew its own agenda and modus operandi of work. Interest in the land development has been one such outcome.
Karachi has immensely suffered due to impotent mechanisms of land use controls. According to the prescription of Karachi Development Plan 1986 – 2000, the city comprised 186000 hectares of land assets. A sizable percentage of this land was reserved for future usage. Current dynamics suggest that not only this land but also the adjoining parcels have already been put up for sale through different schemes.
Many government departments have sold or purchased lands in enormous measurement. A sizable change in the coastal areas has appeared due to land reclamation and other physical change of status in coastline. In majority of the cases, the information is kept concealed from the society in general and concerned stakeholders in particular. Many negative fall-outs emerge from this peculiar approach.
The needy households find it impossible to access land for housing due to fast escalating prices. Monitoring of land by external and internal institutional mechanisms become difficult due to denial of access to land ownership records. Land use conversions are done without any landuse plan which is yet to be prepared and notified. The infrastructure/utility agencies are neither consulted nor informed about future land schemes for provision of infrastructure.
Thus even posh residential schemes turn into slums overnight. Besides unprecedented growth of the residential schemes is depleting the land reserves at a very fast pace. Urban poor are being constantly deprived of opportunities to access land for housing. In sum, no structured criteria is applied in opening up land reserves for sales and development.
Land is an asset, not a commodity. It must be utilized with the application of social justice as the guiding principle. Ongoing sales of land shall leave this city deprived of essential amenities and services due to scarcity of land. Government departments that own land must act as trustees to this asset.
In order to promote transparency at all the stages of functioning, the government agencies must publish land records with necessary information. Public pressure and monitoring alone can help safeguard this precious entity which must be reserved for appropriate utilization.