Murtaza Wahab, the adviser to the Sindh chief minister on law and environment, has said it is unreasonable to demolish in 2021 the constructions carried out in Karachi under the policy adopted in the year 2004-05 to commercialise a number of thoroughfares in the city.
Wahab, who also acts as the spokesman for the Sindh government, made this statement on Wednesday while talking to media persons as he inaugurated an urban forest project at the Government Elementary College of Education, Hussainabad, along with singer and social activist Shehzad Roy.
“Decisions should be taken in Karachi in the manner Constitutional Avenue in Islamabad was regularised on humanitarian grounds,” he said. He explained that the Sindh government had decided to constitute an inquiry commission to suggest solutions for the issue of unauthorised constructions in the city.
This inquiry commission would give advice to the Sindh government to find out a permanent solution for the problem of unauthorised constructions, he said. “Whether it is the Nasla Tower or the Aladin Park, the solution to the problem doesn’t lie in depriving people of their livelihoods in such difficult times,” he remarked.
Wahab said the lease in the case of the Nasla Tower had been issued before the regime of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s consecutive governments in Sindh but even then, the Sindh government would not leave alone the affected people as steps were being taken to provide alternative space to them.
He added that such affected people in Orangi Town would also be provided with alternative land and a recommendation to this effect would be made by the proposed inquiry commission. “The manifesto of the Pakistan Peoples Party stands for providing accommodation as these people will not be rendered homeless as they in the past invested their entire lifetime savings while trusting the government officials of the past to get a shelter,” said Wahab.
The law adviser recalled that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto used to say that a way out should be found despite court orders. “The Sindh government has decided to provide alternative land to the people in the city who are being affected. Concerned people should appear before the inquiry commission and present their viewpoint as construction, not destruction, should take place in the city,” he said.
He also lauded the training services of the Government Elementary College of Education under public-private partnership to produce qualified teachers. He also appreciated Roy for partnering with the Sindh government to execute such a public-private partnership programme for the first time to produce properly qualified teachers. He said the urban forest project launched at the college would be helpful in combating the issues of environmental degradation, climate change and temperature rise.