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Bahria Town evictions: Bilawal asks CM to stop all work and submit report

KARACHI: PPP-P Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, taking notice of the reports of villagers being evicted by employees of Bahia Town and personnel of LEAs, had asked CM Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah to give him a report further deciphering the open secret. 

“I’ve taken notice of the issue and a report should be given to me. All work which is going on there should be immediately stopped until the report doesn’t arrive,” he told the journalists at a Presser held on Friday (30th of April) regarding by-elections in the NA-249 constituency of Karachi: “We definitely want to focus on this that there’s no injustice with anyone and especially if injustice has happened in yesterday’s incident then action should be taken against those who supported this injustice.” 

This scribe has been to the site of conflict and interviewed the affected people. From the villagers side Haji Ebraheem Gabol, who owns a considerably large cultivable terrain,  claimed that Bahria had acquired a 500-acre piece of land at a little distance from the main Bahria Town. They want to construct a 300-feet wide road running through his village. He said that people belonging to Bahria administration along with LEA personnel attempted to commence the construction of the said road by utilizing heavy machinery.

Haji Ebraheem Gabol, informing that hundreds of villagers converged to face the invaders, accused the Police of beating villagers. He said that the land belonged to them, where they had been living for over a century, hence they should be the first to get benefit from government if there happens to be any. He said that legally they have a lease valid until 2022. He also claimed that construction of a 300-feet wide road would not only usurp a vast tract of the village’s cultivated land but it would also encourage Bahria Town to encroach upon their village.

Moreover, according to Haji Ebraheem Gabol, the Bahria administration wanted to level a mount that serves as a wall for the village. That was unacceptable to the villagers who do not erect boundary walls and reckon the said hillock as a curtain between the people and their privacy. On the other hand concerned authorities state that a negotiation was going on between the Bahria and villagers regarding the compensation for the use of their land. But the villagers wanted an exorbitant amount. On the other hand the villagers are selling their (so called ancestral) lands to people from other provinces though their own lease is expiring next year.

It is pertinent to mention here that the news about eviction of residents from their lands was posted extensively on Thursday 29th of April, 2021 on Social Media. Noor-ul-Huda Shah, écrivain, has Tweeted: “The land of the local population is being seized through Bahria Town. The population is being evicted at gunpoint. People are being pushed back with heavy machinery. Are being arrested. It is as if the foreign invaders have once again invaded Sindh. Will Sindh High Court dare to play any role like Lahore High Court? “

Meanwhile, Ayaz Latif Palijo, President of Qaumi Awami Tahreek taking to the Twitter  announced a Province-wide strike on Saturday (1st of May, 2021): “There will be protests across Sindh tomorrow against the demolition of villages in Karachi by Bahria and the government and injuring hundreds of people, including women”. 

According to details, on 4th day of May, 2018 Supreme Court of Pakistan had ruled that the Malir Development Authority (MDA) had illegally granted land to Bahria Town. The Sindh government had allotted the land to MDA for building a housing scheme. The MDA, however, exchanged the land with Bahria Town, the court said. Bahria Town was even barred from selling any plot or apartment in the housing scheme. The SCP had been hearing a case on the implementation of its verdict.

It may be recalled that Bahria Town management had made several proposals to get the land transferred to it but the Supreme Court of Pakistan had rejected all the proposals. In one proposal Bahria Town management had asked the Supreme Court of Pakistan for complete legal immunity in return of Rs.485 billion: “After finalization of the proposal, all criminal and civil liabilities against its directors (past and present), shareholders, management of BTPL and/or its associated entities shall cease to exist…

“all on-going inquiries, investigations by all agencies (NAB, FIA, FBR, Anti-corruption) in said matters is said to be ceased/waived/discharged.” In the proposal Bahria Town management had asked the court to refrain investigating agencies from investigations against the management for “all times to come”. Finally, in the month of March, 2019, Supreme Court of Pakistan had accepted Bahria Town Karachi’s Rs. 460 billion offer for the lands it occupied in the Malir district here and restrained NAB from filing references against it.

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M M Alam

M. M. Alam is a Pakistan-based working journalist since 1981. Karachi University faculty gold medalist Alam began his career four decades ago by writing for Dawn, Pakistan’s highest circulating English daily. He has worked for region’s leading publications, global aviation periodicals including Rotors (of USA) and vetted New York Times as permanent employee of daily Express Tribune. Alam regularly covers international aviation and defense-related events including Salon Du Bourget (France), Farnborough (United Kingdom), Dubai (UAE). Alam has reported thousands of events and interviewed hundreds of people in Pakistan, UAE, EU, UK and USA. Being Francophone Alam also coordinates with a number of French publications.