–Protestors demands alternate housing and livelihoods for affectees of KCR
KARACHI: Civil society, human rights, women’s rights and labour rights organisations under the banner of “KCR Action Committee” staged a protest demonstration from Regal Chowk to Karachi Press Club on Sunday.
A large number of affected people took part in the rally.
They were carrying banners and placards and chanting the slogan “Housing is a basic component of social protection”.
They maintained that the Government of Pakistan is obligated to ensure this basic right in the policy and principals of the constitution of Pakistan.
However, it is important to note that no government has initiated any scheme to provide decent and dignified housing for its citizens since the government of the late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
Poor and middle classes of Pakistan have had to fend for themselves. The citizens of the country have been left at the mercy of private land developers, who sell land at exorbitant prices. Other inputs of construction are also out of the reach of common people of Pakistan.
There is a bureaucracy that is supposed to work on the regulation of land and housing but it is highly ineffective and is subversive to its mandate. Katchi Abadis and unregulated housing schemes present ample evidence of the government’s messed up mechanisms.
As a result of the government failing to provide housing for citizens, most people, who do not know about government regulations, end up getting so-called illegal access to land, electricity and water.
Hence, they are vulnerable and have to face eviction from their houses which they have constructed with their hard-earned money. The recent example in this regard is forceful eviction of the affectees of Karachi Circular Railways (KCR).
The protestors in the rally maintained that they were not against the public interest project of Karachi Circular Railways. They stressed that the survey conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency-JICA in 2013 has declared more than 4,800 housing units as affectees of the KCR project. The JICA report also recommended providing alternate housing and livelihoods options to the affectees of the KCR, therefore, the concerned authorities must comply with the measures mentioned in the JICA report.
A petition has been lodged in the Supreme Court by Niamaatullah Khan and Jibran Nasir.
Their petition prays that this court may be pleased to “restrain Pakistan Railways and the Government of Sindh and/or their employees/persons, agents or representatives acting on their behalf, from demolishing the structures and evicting the concerned Applicant Interveners, the occupants and other affectees, in pursuit of the Karachi Circular Railway and the local train projects, till the adjudication of the Intervener Application bearing CMA No. 425- K of 2019 in CP No. 9 of 2010”.
Another petition was filed by the renowned town planner and housing rights activist Mr Arif Hassan along with other members of civil society and the affectees.
The petition maintains that proper planning for the eviction should be done before the eviction. Right of the residents that are guaranteed in the constitution of Pakistan and in international conventions and covenants, should be protected.
A committee had earlier been formed to look into the matter mentioned above after the hearings of NCHR Sindh office, which is not currently functional. Therefore, it was demanded that the aforementioned committee should be reinvigorated with the inclusion of the affectees of all the relevant areas, concerned ministries and MPAs, MNAs, technical experts, and CSO representatives.
The rally demands that public hearings, broad-based consultations, and rapid surveys should be conducted to properly analyze the KCR plan and its possible impacts on the communities which will come its way.
The rally also demanded that a large number of women are affected due to this demolition drive, therefore, the Sindh Commission on the Status of Women should be designated a task to review and make recommendations for the proper rehabilitation and resettlement of women affectees of the KCR project. Furthermore, affected children are out of schools. Therefore, temporary schooling should be provided to the children to save their educational year.
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