Basti Saidan Shah is an immense designed slum in the middle of Lahore. It was created by an executive order of the then PM Nawaz Sharif. It is surrounded by affluence like the Gymkhana Golf course, the upper Mall, the Cantonment, the state guest house complex, NIPA complex. As long as the population pressures were bearable, there was a status quo of co-existence here. Unfortunately after 9/11 the following government offices, occupying palatial Hindu houses decided to block major roads under the guise of security. The major culprits are the Intelligence Bureau head office on the Mall, the Rangers HQ on the Mall and the offices of NIPA on the Mall.
Coming in from the lower Mall, the access to the basti is a single lane running along the Rangers HQ called Anand Road. Not only has the service lane of the Mall been blocked but the left lane on Anand Road has also been declared a “no-go area” for the public. We request the designer/architect of the basti to kindly tell the requisite authorities to loosen their purse strings and pave a larger portion of the now congested Anand road. This solution is the favourite modus operandi of the politicians from smaller constituencies. You don’t have to step on the toes of the powerful ruling class and the poor are happy as well for the facility, not to mention the kickbacks. Wonder why they missed this opportunity.
One also has to ask why after 65 years of independence, we have still not been able to properly house these government outfits in secure and purpose-built offices. There are so many such offices all over the city causing chaos in traffic that moving the federal ones to the Governor’s House compound would be the natural solution. The provincial ones should also be moved off the major roads. The almost siege-like barricading of GOR 1 presents a pathetic sight. This place should be the expanded Race Course Park area and not a country club for Sarkaris. If the city planners don’t look at this problem soon, it will worsen. I guess, at the heart of the matter is the changing mathematics of power: whether it’s the federal government or the provincial government that will decide the matter?
S AMIR
Lahore
