‘Land and targeted killings are connected but reporting lacks substance, context’

KARACHI – News of targeted violence are often splashed across headlines but journalists reporting on the issue often fail to connect the phenomenon with disputes over land, argued Shehri-Citizens for a Better Environment (CBE) Secretary-General Amber Alibhai on Wednesday at a workshop organised at a local hotel.
“Land and targeted killings are connected, but reporting of this issue lacks substance and context,” Alibhai said during her welcome address, explaining that in a large number of cases of targeted violence, the primary issue is over a land dispute between various political groups and mafias. Yet, reportage in almost all publications and the electronic media present merely figures and not the context.
The workshop, described by Shehri-CBE member Farhan Anwar as a “cross-learning exercise,” was an attempt to inculcate among journalists the complexity of city space and land use, as well as to impress the critical role that can be played by the media to ensure social justice. Divided into two sessions, the first dealt with experts contextualising the issue while the second was an interactive exercise designed to highlight development constraints, limitations of the media, as well as strategies and solutions going forward.
“Take the case of inter-city bus stops near Sea Breeze (Saddar). We discovered that the route permits issued to bus owners under the West Pakistan Road transport Act are full of ambiguities. For instance, a permit is issued for a Karachi-to-Hyderabad route, but nowhere is “Karachi” specified. Authorities deliberately avoid specifying the place where bus stops can be constructed, and that is the reason bus cabins sprout on pavements,” Alibhai explained.
NED University of Engineering and Technology Architecture and Planning Department Chairman Dr Noman Ahmed in his fascinating lecture on land use management and allied affairs, delivered entirely in Urdu, presented a number of case studies of land misuse and encroachment of public amenity spaces.
“A number of blockades have been placed outside the Corps Commander Saheb’s office on main Shahrah-e-Faisal on the pretext of security. Similar is the case with the Naval Housing Society; they demolished their boundary walls and extended them to the pavement. The number of pedestrians has increased, but their walking space has shrunk,” Dr Ahmed explained.
“Some years ago, the Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate (SITE) held a computerised balloting for industrial plots, with technical help from the National Bank of Pakistan. When the balloting started, the computer chose only numbers that were divisible by five. A SITE official caught this irregularity and argued that the media may embarrass them. Subsequently, the contract for balloting was awarded to another firm, with SITE officials claiming that a virus had affected the balloting software,” he narrated.
The last speech of the first session was delivered by Engineer Nooruddin Ahmed of The Institution of Engineers, Pakistan. Engineer Ahmed recounted the Karachi of yesteryear, arguing that development for cities such as Karachi need to be premised on proper plans and resource needs.
The second session was moderated by a panel comprising of journalist Sahar Ali, Dr Noman Ahmed and Farhan Anwar. Two sheets were provided to journalists – a green one and a white one, with participants asked to jot down development constraints on the green sheet and limitations of the media on the white one.
When the moderators initially opened the floor to journalists, many chose to concentrate on the woes faced by working media professionals. After many passionate monologues, however, the discussion found some focus as journalists and the panel exchanged views on the conflict between reporters’ exclusive stories on misuse of land and the corporate concerns of media organisations.
Journalists argued that many times, stories filed against corporate entities are trashed because owners of media houses fear they will lose advertisement revenue if those stories are published. They also explained that no protection is guaranteed to them while reporting on land issues, while the slow process of recrimination ensures that their stories have little impact.
Dr Ahmed commented that the judicial and lawyers’ fraternity believe in the “justice hurried is justice buried” mantra. Ali urged journalists to share stories among themselves, claiming, “They can kill one, but they can’t kill six or seven.”