A CITY FOR THE RICH
by Zubeida Mustafa
"WHEN the Diamond City comes up on Bundal
(Bhundaarh in Sindhi) island all the rich of
Karachi will move in there and the poor will be
left behind. We will then not even get drinking
water," observes Ahmad (not his real name) with
profound wisdom. Ahmad has been in the fishing
trade for decades. He studied up to grade four in
Ibrahim Hyderi village before joining his father
in his boat trips to learn the maritime skills.
He now knows the Indus delta and its various
creeks, where he plies his hired motor launch,
like the back of his sea-worn hands.
The islands Ahmad was referring to have been in
the news for sometimes now. It has been reported
that Port Qasim Authority has signed an agreement
with Emaar, the Dubai-based construction company,
to develop Bundal and the adjoining Buddo (Dingi
in local parlance) island into an exclusive area
for a diplomatic enclave, an offshore financial
district, hotels, recreational spots, water
sports and a five star residential area.
According to reports the Governor of Sind,
members of the local government and the Board of
Revenue are working on the plan. To obtain the
Port Qasim Authority’s point of view I put in a
number of calls but was told that only the
chairman is authorized to speak to the press. The
rear admiral was locked in a meeting every time I
tried to reach him and he never returned my call.
Ahmad took us on a cruise of the islands in the
Phitti Creek, one of the 17 major creeks of the
shrinking Indus delta which still, along with
five others, receives fresh water from the river.
The remaining are now fed only by the salty
waters of the Arabian Sea.
A trip to Bundal and Buddo was most rewarding and
exploded quite a few myths being propagated by
supporters of the island project. They are not
exactly as they are being described - uninhabited
and deserted, and of no use to any one. Buddo
which is about 20 minutes launch ride away from
Ibrahim Hyderi is lush green and has a rich
mangrove plantation. There were camels grazing
there and Ahmad informed me that the animals swim
from the nearby coast and are brought here to
allow them to have their fill. Wildlife is in
abundance as the pictures we took testify to.
It took us another 20 minutes to reach Bundal,
the largest island in the delta, eight km in
length and four km in width. It emerges as a
solid block of mangroves as you approach it from
the north. But further south the mangroves thin
out and sand dunes take their place pointing to
the wave erosion taking place there. As the
launch moves on there emerges a shrine - that of
the loisare held after Eid every year. The
changes in the fresh water courses in this area -
many man-made - have not been good for the
mangroves. The ravages inflicted by human
development have been worse. From 263,000
hectares in 1977 the mangroves covered area has
shrunk to a mere 80,000 hectares in 2002.
The sea weaving through the inlets in the
islands, the greenery, the wildlife and the clear
blue sky converge to present scenic beauty
untouched by human hands. But for how long? When
Emaar enters the scene and fortifies these
islands as claimed by the Port Qasim Authority,
the first casualty would be the ecology of the
area. Land would be reclaimed from the sea, as is
already being done off the DHA coast, and a
bridge 1.5 km in length would link Bundal with
the mainland. The mangroves will obviously have
to go. The wildlife would migrate when its
natural habitat is disturbed. These changes will
mean the end of the breeding grounds for the
fish, shrimps and green turtles.
The fisher folk, the real stakeholders in the
area, have been deeply upset. They feel the noose
tightening round their neck. They can anticipate
the fate that awaits them. When the PAF base at
Korangi Creek came up they were shooed away and
asked to keep a distance from the shore. Then the
Marina and Creek Clubs made more areas out of
bound for them. The new city will take away their
historical rights to vital resources, namely,
water, air and biodiversity, which the Indian
activist Vandana Shiva refers to as the ’common
spaces’. Conventionally these cannot be
privatised and are held in perpetuity as the
common property of a community. Not so when
12,000 acres are handed over for development.
Bundal is also used by the fishermen as a transit
point when they venture out to the high seas for
fishing. We saw some temporary shelters and
families camped there. They were drying their
catch of fish and mending their nets. We could
have disembarked there but jumping off the launch
to a smaller boat to reach the shore didn’t
appear to be a very inviting exercise. The five
children who had accompanied us with our
seven-man crew nimbly made it to the shore. They
have virtually lived on the boats I was told, as
they are too poor to go to school.
Nearly 4,000 fishing boats make a trip every day
near the Bundal coast. The Fisher folk Forum
fears their routes will be disturbed. Even today,
the deep water channel has narrowed down due to
the changes that have taken place. With more land
reclamation, the construction of a bridge and
deforestation, the depth and width of the
navigation channels will be affected.
Given these implications, the debate on
jurisdiction - the federal or the Sindh
government’s - seems to detract from the real
issue. That is the need to preserve the ecology
of the area, as any environment impact assessment
would confirm. Land use will ignore social and
environmental considerations. Worst of all the
project will be undertaken for the rich without
consulting the stakeholders who also happen to be
poor. The class divide will widen further.
Ahmad understands this too well. Hence his
plaintive query, “Can’t you stop the new city?”.
WHO OWNS THE ALLOTTED ISLANDS?
By Naseer Memon
LAST month, the federal government allotted,
through the Port Qasim Authority (PQA), the
Bundal and Buddo islands located off the Karachi
coast to a UAE-based real estate giant Emaar.
This company is to develop a modern city on this
land with an investment of $43 billion over the
next 13-16 years.
The ownership of the islands is disputed as the
Sindh government claims that they were not
included in the area leased to the PQA for port
related operations. However Prime Minister
Shaukat Aziz declared (on Oct 14) during his
visit to assumed owners besides the PQA including
the Defence Housing Authority, Pakistan Navy and
the Sindh government. Sadly the historical claim
to ownership of the islands of the poor fishermen
is not recognised.
The City District Government of Karachi (CDGK)
has also laid to the islands and according to
reports appearing in this newspaper (Oct 8) it
signed an MoU with four entrepreneurs (including
a firm from Thailand) for establishing an IT
infrastructural project. This envisaged the
’Karachi Technology Island City’ to be set up on
a 300-acre piece of land, opposite the creek of
Karachi. At the MoU signing ceremony, the City
Nazim at the time, Naimatullah Khan, had assured
the signatories that the city government was
ready to provide land and other infrastructural
facilities for the project but federal minister
for science and technology, Dr Atta-ur-Rehman,
who was the chief guest on the occasion,
apparently understood the implications of the
ownership issue and urged all the stakeholders to
be clear about giving a legal shape to the
project.
PQA has been a major player in the race for
occupying the islands. At one stage it was
considering the Bundal island as one of the
potential sites for setting up a terminal for
liquid natural gas (LNG) and a consortium of
leading Japanese and Korean companies had
expressed interest in setting up an LNG terminal
at Bundal island in response to an Expression of
Interest (EOI) issued by PQA. This sparked a
strong reaction from the Sindh government which
challenged the ownership of the area.
At one stage the Port Qasim Auhtority had also
allotted 2,700 acres of land to Pakistan Navy,
without any authorisation. Although Pakistan Navy
later shifted the facility to Ormara for which
the land was acquired though it still lays claim
over the Bundal island.
The Defence Housing Authorityreportedly
approached General Musharraf in 2001 to get this
land to develop a theme park. The Chief
Executive’s secretariat sent a letter to the
government of Sindh, which stated, "while
approving the concept of developing Bundal and
Khipranwala islands, the Chief Executive directed
that first the status of ownership of these
islands be determined by DHA asking comments from
the government, the ministry of communications,
PQA and Pakistan Navy." However the project
requiring an investment of 69 million dollars
could not take off as the Sindh government took a
strong stand on the ownership of the island.
The EDO (Revenue) of Karachi through a letter
sent on Sept 6, 2001 reported, "the ownership of
these islands vests in the provincial government.
In the past the government of Sindh has made
allotments to DHA and PQA but these islands have
not been allotted."
The Sindh government continued to claim the
ownership of the islands. In a meeting held at
Sindh Governor’s House on Feb 23, 2006 the Senior
Member Board of Revenue said that the islands are
the property of the government of Sindh.
According to him, when PQA was established, its
area of operation was defined, which does not
include the Bundal island.
The Senior Minister (Excise and Taxation) also
endorsed this point of view and said that Bundal
island has never been allotted to PQA.
Legal perspective
The provincial law department is also of the view
that the land allotted by the federal government
was the property of the provincial government.
According to the law secretary Syed Ghulam Nabi
Shah, under Sindh Land Revenue Code (Repealed)
all lands, the bed of the sea, harbours, creeks
below the high-water mark etc. were the property
of the provincial government. Similarly, Section
50 of the Sindh Revenue Act, 1967, also upholds
the same right of the provincial government. The
Sindh High Court has also given a judgment in
favour of the provincial government in a dispute
with the DHA about the latter’s claim to 250
acres of reclaimed land near the seashore of
Clifton beach.
Barrister Zamir Ghumro says the federal
government does not possess any land in any
province and all land within the jurisdiction of
any province belongs to the province only.
However the federal government can approach the
provincial government for acquiring land for a
specific purpose. But this will not change the
ownership status of the land. In this context PQA
cannot be the owner of the island, since it
acquired the area from Sindh province for port
related activities only.
A letter of the law department, dated Sept 9,
2000 explains the legal position: "Under Article
172 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic
of Pakistan, 1973, the land reclaimed through
natural or artificial process located in the
province of Sindh vests in the government of
Sindh. This view gets support from the
observations made by Mr. Justice Shabbir Ahmed,
Honorable Judge of the High Court of Sindh, while
deciding the injunction application by the
government of Sindh in suit No 778 filed by the
government of Sindh."
According to Section 50 of the Land Revenue Act
of 1967 any forest or quarry or any unclaimed,
unoccupied, deserted or waste land or any
spontaneous produce or other accessory interest
in land belonging to no landowners, it shall be
presumed to belong to the government.
Article 172 (1) of the constitution also supports
the point of view of the Sindh government. It
says, "any property which has no rightful owner
shall, if located in a province, vests in the
government of that province and in every other
case, in the federal government."
It is strange that no one from the local
communities has ever been consulted to ascertain
the historical rights of fishermen, who have
lived and worked in the area long before the
country came on the world map.