KARACHI, Oct 20: Speakers at a seminar here on Sunday claimed that international donor agencies ignored the local community while implementing development projects.

They were speaking at the “Third Dr Akhter Hameed Khan Development Forum,” organized by NGOs, at the National Institute of Public Administration.

Delivering the Dr Akhter Hameed Khan Memorial lecture, economist Dr Aly Ercelawn cited instances of several such projects financed by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank that proved disasters for the local community.

Following protest by the local community against the Chotiari Reservoir project, the Asian Development Bank pulled back from the project and now some Saudi agency was funding it, he said.

Referring to the Korangi Fish Harbour project, he said the project remained redundant for several years.

“Suddenly we saw carpeting of the access roads and movement of large vehicles/vessels in the area as deep-sea trawlers began their operation from the harbour” he said.

Talking about deep sea fishing, Dr Ercelawn said deep-sea trawlers’ three- mile-long net wiped out fish stock and also secured a huge quantity of by-catch that was thrown back into the sea in the form of dead fish.

Moreover, these big vessels often crossed their allotted territory, as before the imposition of ban on licence for deep-sea fishing several foreign trawlers were spotted even in the creeks, he said.

The late Omar Ashgar Khan, when he was a minister in the present government, imposed a ban on the issuance of licence for deep-sea fishing trawlers.

He referred to a study conducted by a navy official after the ban, and said the study revealed that after the ban fish exports registered a sizable increase.

“China formally lodged a protest with the government, and the ban on the issuance of licence for deep-sea fishing was lifted,” Dr Ercelawn said.

He also referred to the plan concerning privatization of the KWSB and the Chashma project which proved fiasco for the donor agencies.

Representing the People Rights Movement, Islamabad, Asim Sajjad spoke on the peasant struggle in Punjab against the army.

“Such type of peasant movement has never been witnessed in Punjab, in which during the past nine months six peasants have lost their lives,” he said.

Giving a historical perspective of the issue, Mr Asim claimed that during the colonial period farmers from east Punjab were resettled in Okara and Khanewal on the assurance that they would be given proprietary land rights. Over the years they turned the barren grasslands into 70,000 acres of farmland.

This land, owned by the government of Punjab, was leased to the army for 20-25 years, he claimed. Thus military farms came into being.

“This lease expired recently, but by June 2000 the military administration in these areas began pursuing peasants to enter into contract agreements which stipulated that they would vacate land within six months if it was needed for defence purposes,” he said.

All normal tenancy laws had been set aside in the contract; in case of default a peasant could be ejected from these lands within three months, he claimed.

“Rangers have been deployed on the Okara farmlands to contain the peasant movement, as peasants were demanding ownership of land because they have been tenants there since the colonial period,” he said.

“The Board of Revenue and the public accounts department have given decisions in favour of peasants. It is also a human-rights issue because 35-40 per cent of the peasants on these farms are from the minority Christian community,” he added.

Nazir Ahmed Watto, of the Anjuman-i-Samaji Bahbood, Faisalabad, said how residents of a small village, Dudiwala in Faisalabad district, learnt from renowned sociologist Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan when they laid a sewerage line in their village on a self-help basis.

He said through working at the grassroots level people could make remarkable achievement as Dr Khan did in the Orangi Pilot Project.

He said more people have died in the past 100 years due to poor sanitation than in war. Keeping in view the massive corruption in our government departments, people should solve their problems on a self-help basis.

Mohammed Nauman, an associate professor at NED University of Engineering and Technology, made a presentation on a strategy to fight poverty in Pakistan.

The day-long two sessions of the seminar was presided over by senior journalist Zubaida Mustafa and Dr Fauzia Qureshi.

The sessions were followed by group discussions.

Writer and newspaper columnist Zahida Hina summed up the proceedings of the Third Dr Akhter Hameed Khan Development Forum.