Bill allowing govt to use amenity land for BRTS projects sails through Sindh Assembly

The Sindh Assembly on Monday unanimously passed the Karachi Development Authority (Sindh Amendment) Bill-2018 allowing the provincial government to use certain amenity land in the city for creating necessary facilities and provisions for the under-development Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) projects.

Minister for Law Ziaul Hasan Lanjar moved the bill in the house. However, on the insistence of the opposition, the law minister had to insert an amendment in the bill, before it was passed, to specify the two amenity plots whose conversion of use is immediately sought by the government to complete the Green Line section of BRTS project.

The opposition’s stance

Discussing the bill, several concerned opposition lawmakers, including Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Syed Sardar Ahmed, Leader of Opposition Khawaja Izharul Hassan, MPA Faisal Ali Sabzwari and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Samar Ali Khan, urged the government to refer the bill to the relevant Standing Committee of the house for thorough deliberation. They said it was necessary that the Standing Committee discuss the bill to develop a consensus of the treasury and opposition members as the proposed law pertained to the important issue of amenity spaces in the city.

The opposition legislators said that earlier there had been several vicious attempts made to unduly occupy or misuse the amenity spaces in Karachi so another bill moved in the house on the same subject should not be passed in a hurried manner. They also said that the government should not be given blanket powers to convert the use of amenity land in the city.

The lawmakers pointed out that several cases were already pending in courts and accountability agencies against ministers belonging to PPP regarding misuse or undue conversion of the use of amenity land in the city.

They said that amenity spaces in Karachi had been shrinking fast and whatever such land had been left should not be converted for any use other than amenity purposes. However, Lanjar clarified that the bill was moved in the house after due approval of the cabinet and with the specific purpose of allowing amenity spaces, wherever it has become inevitable, to facilitate the completion of mass transit projects in the city.

He said that government was ready to specify the amenity land in question whose conversion of utilisation was required by the government. Later, on the insistence of the opposition, an amendment was moved in the house, specifying that the bill was moved to specifically allow conversion of use of two plots – one in Surjani Town and one in Naumaish intersection – to facilitate the completion of the Green Line section.

Debate on census results

Earlier, speaking on a call to attention notice, opposition MPA of MQM Kamran Akhtar said that the Sindh government of PPP had not seriously taken up the issue of the 6th population census whose results, he said, had shown Karachi’s population to be lesser than it actually was.

He claimed that over 10 million population of Karachi had not been counted in the census drive conducted last year, and the Sindh government didn’t protest on the issue in a serious manner. The counting of population of Karachi much less than the actual figure would simply mean that there would be less allocation of fiscal resources from the federal divisible pool, said Akhtar.

He claimed that the PPP government was not sincere with the people of Karachi as it had not been pursuing the issue of verification of results of five per cent census blocks in the province.

In response, the law minister said that the opposition MPA’s speech was unduly meant to fan linguistic sentiments in the house. He added that earlier the government had decided to verify the results of one per cent census blocks but later it decided to increase that to five per cent as the chief minister had pleaded the case of Sindh very emphatically in the Council of Common Interests.

Lanjar said he had been heading the committee constituted to look after the process and procedure for verification of results of five per cent census blocks in Sindh.

Meanwhile, opposition lawmakers Sabir Hussain Qaimkhani, Kamran Akhtar and Amir Hyder Shah Sheerazi informed the house that they had received threatening messages on their cell phones purportedly sent by people associated with banned organisations. Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani advised them to submit their complaints in writing to the law minister for necessary action by the provincial government.