Gujjar Nullah: The markings of doom and gloom

Seventy-year-old Salamat Masih was struck by irony when he realised a few days ago that the same Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) where he had served all his life as a sweeper would demolish all he had got – his 60-square-yard house at the bank of the city’s mighty Gujjar Nullah.

The corporation has been tasked with widening the storm water drain to its original shape and width, along with the construction of a 30-foot-wide road on both sides of the nullah, due to which scores of katchi abadis will have to be razed.

The Gujjar Nullah is a natural drain in the city starting from New Karachi and ending at the Chuna Depot in Haji Mureed Goth, where it falls into the Lyari River. The original length of the nullah was 13 kilometres and it was 210 feet wide.

According to senior KMC director anti-encroachment Bashir Siddiqui, around 4,000 houses and commercial units will be demolished surrounding the drain, for which the residents will be paid a two-year rent by the Sindh government.

Masih and other residents of the area, however, know nothing about the two-year compensation. “We want houses like affected people of the Lyari Expressway were provided,” said Masih.

Special prayers

Impoverished Christian dwellers of the many slums punctuated along the natural drain held special prayers on Sunday, February 14, for their livelihoods and shelters, as the corporation, like it has been for many years in the past, approaches to destroy their homes, once again with renewed vigour.

The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) minority wing’s vice president, Samuel Nazir, who has also served as city councillor from 2001 to 2005, is a resident of Sadiq Nagar Tayyabad, which is a katchi abadi of the Christian community at the bank of the nullah. At the other bank of the nullah exists Kausar Niazi Colony.

Apart from these two settlements, Nazir shared with The News on Sunday, members of the Christian community surrounding the Gujjar Nullah are present in Godhra Camp, FC Area, C Area (Hassan Colony) and Nazimabad No. 2.

In front of Darbar-e-Sultani in FB Area, a narrow but long alley leads to the Sadiq Nagar Tayyabad. Panaflex of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the JI hanging from poles wished the Christian community ‘Happy Christmas’. “Sadly none of these political parties have come for our aide,” lamented Mashi’s wife, Khalida.

Green, red and blue markings, made with spray paint, were visible on walls all around the colony. On some houses, the authorities have inscribed 16 per cent, and on some others 50 per cent, indicating how much of those structures will be demolished. Pointing towards the markings, Nazir laughed sarcastically, “How much will be left to live in if 16 or 50 per cent of 60 square yards is razed?”

Deeper into the colony, the stench of sewage flowing into the Gujjar Nullah engulfed the area. The houses were still decorated with stars, bunting, pennants and strings as if Christmas were yesterday. Children could be heard singing hymns to the beat of a dhol in a church at a distance.

Raj Nadeem, 15, was engrossed in playing PUBG outside his home with his friends, seeming hardly perturbed about the impending demolition of the colony he lived in. He was more concerned about the Santa Claus graffiti he had painted on the boundary wall of his little home, which was slightly blotted by the corporation’s marking of encroachments.

Just in front of the Santa Claus face, the officials have marked 100 per cent, which means his entire house will be brought down. “It took us four days to paint the Santa,” he said.

A dangling sword

After every six months, some government agency comes for a survey and marks homes in the colony, said Khalida.

“Imagine how you would feel if a government team drew a red arrow on the boundary wall of your home and told you it had to be demolished. We go through the same ordeal every few months. A sword constantly hangs above our heads.”

Meanwhile, Masih shared a lease document issued by the then City District Government Karachi (CDGK) on which ‘Lease Hold Rights by Regularization of Un-authorities Possession in Katchi Abadis Karachi’ is written.

Back in 2005, said Nazir, through a resolution from the council hall, these settlements had already been regularised. “Now the authorities cannot call us encroachments.”

A repeated exercise

A drive to clean the Gujjar Nullah from all sorts of encroachments starts each year before monsoon, dutifully with much fanfare, but ends midway due to a shortage of funds and sometimes a nonchalant attitude of the provincial government.

The PPP and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-led Sindh and local governments in Karachi had been keen to initiate this project that dates back to 2007. Back in 2007, the city government announced that it would start the channelisation of the 13.5 kilometre-long Gujjar Nullah after the removal of encroachments. The then Karachi Nazim, Syed Mustafa Kamal, had approved the project at an estimated cost of Rs2.7 billion.

Each year, new figures of houses to be demolished surrounding the drain spring up. Earlier, in 2015, the government claimed that more 30,000 houses would have to be demolished and then the figure reduced to 10,000, and this year, around 4,000 houses have been marked.

In 2015, the Sindh government came up with the Gujjar Nullah Resettlement Project at a cost of Rs18billion, whose chief engineer was Asadullah Shah. The project’s PC-1 was apparently never approved. Eighty per cent of the project’s cost then was for the resettlement of the would-be affected people.

The same exercise was halfheartedly repeated in the years 2016 and 2017, and no resettlement could take place nor were encroachments removed.

In 2018, former mayor Wasim Akhtar held a ground-breaking ceremony for a project called ‘Revamping of Gujjar Nullah Including Service Road’ at a cost of Rs12.5 billion. The project fell victim to want of funds and ill- planning, as there was no plan to relocate settlements.

To date, the inauguration stone of the project, with Akhtar’s name on it, stands in Haji Mureed Goth, where the nullah meets the Lyari River. However, barring the foundation stone to claim credit and media statements to appease masses, piles of garbage strewn across the scene, with stray dogs lying around it basking in the sun, paint a picture beyond the skin-deep interest of the government in the project.

Devoid of union

The biggest problem with the settlements surrounding the Gujjar Nullah is that it is devoid of any union.

According to the Awami Worker Party’s general secretary, Khurram Ali Nayyar, due to the absence of unions and associations, such administrative crises occur in the city. “There are a lot of minorities and Bengali communities around the Gujjar Nullah, which are the most vulnerable,” he pointed out, adding that the government seemed not ready to safeguard their interests.

Value of the land

It is very important to ascertain the value of the land surrounding any development work taking place in the city, according to urban planner and researcher Muhammad Tauheed, who is also associated with the Karachi Urban Lab at the Institute of Business Administration.

If a road is be constructed on both sides of the Gujjar Nullah and the Manzoor Colony Nullah, the value of land, he pointed out, will drastically increase and the poor communities will slowly be sidelined.

When asked about the compensation, Tauheed responded that communities aren’t even aware if they’re being paid. Nayyar said that until anything is in writing, it has no legal value.

The plan

According to the remodelling plan of the Gujjar Nullah, prepared by the NED University, the drain will be widened to at least 60 feet, while at some points to 70 to 80 feet. Around a 30-feet-wide road will also be constructed on both sides of the storm water drain.

In the first phase of the ongoing anti-encroachment operation, the KMC has already removed all sorts of soft encroachments, which include iron grills, kiosks, tea shops, stalls, pushcarts, cattle farms, wooden warehouses and shanties. The second phase, in which houses will have to be demolished, is expected to start this week.