Those affected by KCR braving poverty, weather and now COVID-19

Demolition of settlements along the route of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) had kicked off a year ago. On May 9, 2019, the Supreme Court had ordered that those affected by the project be rehabilitated, but no heed has been paid to the direction.

Addressing a news conference at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday, the joint action committee (JAC) of KCR affectees requested that the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) ensure that the SC’s order is implemented.

Reading out the JAC’s letter, Zahid Farooq of the Urban Resource Centre said at the conference that on the SC’s order, demolition of settlements along the KCR route started on May 11 last year without any prior notice.

As many as 11,000 houses were demolished at the Gilani Station in District East’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town, Quaid-e-Azam Colony, Gharibabad, Mujahid Colony, Wahid Colony, Moosa Colony and Punjabi Colony in District South during Ramazan last year.

Over a year has passed since these houses were demolished, but according to the JAC’s statement, the revival of the KCR is nowhere in sight.

Those affected by the project continue to brave poverty, weather and now COVID-19 under the sky and amid the rubble of what used to be their homes. Deprived of their houses, these low-income families do not have any facility at all.

“They don’t have water, electricity or toilets,” said Farooq. The statement said that when the houses were being demolished last year, a three-member bench headed by the then CJP Justice Gulzar Ahmed had ordered providing alternative housing with all the basic provisions to those affected by the KCR project within a year.

“It has been a year,” said Farooq. The statement also said that they kept waiting for a year for any governmental body to approach them for the rehabilitation of those who had lost their homes in the grand operation for the KCR’s revival.

No joint committee on government level has been formed in which those affected could have been taken on board. The JAC said that in the current circumstances, they fear that the entire process of reviving the KCR was nothing more than an attempt to deprive a low-income group of their homes.

“These structures were there even when the KCR was functional in 1999,” said Farooq. The JAC requested that the CJP implement the SC’s order and rehabilitate all those affected by the KCR project.

They said the people’s livelihood, education and other social aspects of their lives have been destroyed in the operation. They lamented that during the current pandemic, no government has helped them morally or economically.

They demanded that the SC’s rehabilitation orders be immediately implemented. They also demanded that they be rehabilitated near their previous houses so that their livelihood and the education of their children are not affected.

They said the affected families should also be able to benefit from the federal government’s Ehsaas programmes. The railways ministry, and the Sindh and local governments should be questioned about the rehabilitation of the affected people, they added.

Ground realities

Addressing the news conference, architect and town planner Arif Hasan said he feels ashamed of speaking about this issue. “Several resolutions have been passed, the government has been taken on board, stories have been published in the newspapers and campaigns have been run on TV.”

He lamented that there has still been no solution. The SC’s judges have to take action and ensure that the court’s orders are implemented. The top court does not know if the project can be revived.

“They should have considered the ground realities before issuing such a verdict,” he said, adding that even the government officers who have demolished the settlements do not know if the KCR will be constructed.

Hasan said that it has to be ascertained how the SC’s judges will compel the government to implement the court’s orders and rehabilitate the affected people.

For this purpose, he said, they will make all-out efforts to keep the issue alive. “We’ll write to the CJP,” he said, adding that it is his decision and now he has to ensure that the affected people are rehabilitated.

In the present situation of the novel coronavirus, said the town planner, it is not possible for any government to eliminate any small business in the name of encroachment.

Hasan said that 72 per cent of the so-called encroachments along the KCR route are formal settlements. He said that in that particular portion, according to the new design, the KCR will be elevated. As for the portion from where 32 per cent of the encroachments are being removed, the KCR is at-grade, he added.

Three months

Karamat Ali of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education & Research condemned the decision to remove encroachments. “We’ll bring the letter that is to be written to the judges in public.”

He said that it would have been better to incarcerate the poor instead of the way they have been deprived of shelter. He demanded rehabilitation of all those affected within three months. The Sindh government had earlier promised to decide on the matter of rehabilitation, he added.