bhaibarood
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
According to a source present at the meeting, the CDGK officials were given a dressing-down because they were creating “problems” for the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Karachi, whose executive board is headed by the commander of the Karachi-based V Corps. “It was a typical case of the military authorities flexing their muscles to intimidate civilian officials,” said Adil Abbasi, former deputy director katchi abadi (planning) Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).
Qayyumabad’s long battle against DHA
KARACHI: In late 2005, a meeting was called by the then commander V Corps, Lt Gen Syed Athar Ali Shah. Aside from a select group of officers in uniform who were present on the occasion, several officials from the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) had also been summoned. They included, among others, the then nazim Mustafa Kamal, municipal commissioner Lala Fazalur Rahman, as well as Bilal Manzar and Mazhar Khan of the katchi abadi and land departments.
According to a source present at the meeting, the CDGK officials were given a dressing-down because they were creating “problems” for the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Karachi, whose executive board is headed by the commander of the Karachi-based V Corps. “It was a typical case of the military authorities flexing their muscles to intimidate civilian officials,” said Adil Abbasi, former deputy director katchi abadi (planning) Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).
The particular “problem” the military authorities wanted to address that day was the resistance that some KMC/CDGK officials had been putting up since 20 years against DHA Karachi’s demand to surrender land earmarked for the development of amenities for Qayyumabad — a katchi abadi situated along Korangi road near the KPT Flyover.
Corrupt provincial government officials from the higher bureaucracy with vested interests of their own had colluded to issue a notification acceding to DHA’s demand several months ago on Feb 2, 2005. (The Sindh government’s machinations whereby they obliged the military authorities are detailed later in this story.) But some local government officials were still holding out, unwilling to hand over possession of land that had been allocated for Qayyumabad’s amenities, and this was what had evidently prompted DHA Karachi to bring in the big guns.
The local elections in December last year, however, have spurred Qayyumabad residents to mount a fresh campaign to reclaim the land they say is rightfully theirs. Among them is Shamshad Khan, Qayyumabad union council’s newly elected UC nazim. Son of a veteran local politician, he and his father — as well as other residents of the area — have had run-ins with DHA officials in the past over the acres in contention, which is why DHA had never managed to actually take physical possession of the land. “On one occasion, I beat up [retired] Major Tatheer Abbas — a DHA official from its land department — when he’d arrived to knock down the graveyard wall,” said Mr Shamshad. “He ended up with 22 stitches.”
Home to more than 70,000 people in an area of only 109 acres, Qayyumabad is one of the most densely populated and polluted residential localities of Karachi. — Fahim Siddiqi
80-sq yard homes and no amenities
Confined within 109 acres, Qayyumabad katchi abadi is one of the most densely populated and polluted residential areas of the city. It is home to more than 70,000 people — including Pakhtun, Punjabi, Sindhi, Baloch and Urdu-speaking ethnicities, as well as Christians and scheduled caste Hindus — who live in cramped abodes no bigger than 80 square yards that jostle each other for space and have nowhere to expand except vertically. Consequently, illegal construction of multiple floors, with its attendant risks, is common. “As per standard town-planning principles, at less than six square yards per person, the dead in a DHA graveyard have more space than a person living in Qayyumabad,” remarked a former deputy director KMC. According to Mr Shamshad, “There isn’t a single public school here, nor a playground or dispensary”.
On the face of it, there seems little reason for this once marshy piece of land to have caused so much friction between DHA and KMC/CDGK authorities since the late ‘80s. There is no contiguity between the land allocated for Qayyumabad’s amenities and the rest of DHA that lies south of the katchi abadi. In fact, these 30 acres along with the built up area of Qayyumabad do not even fall within the eight DHA phases in District South; they are part of District Korangi. However, commercial developers have always viewed these 30 acres as potentially lucrative real estate. Their assessment is being borne out by the sky-high prices that plots carved out of this land command today.
The dense confines of Qayyumabad with DHA in the background: the contentious 30 acres can be seen towards the bottom left. ─ Fahim Siddiqi
Till the late 1960s, Qayyumabad was just another shantytown in Karachi’s south. But its population rapidly swelled between 1968 and 1976 when squatters from near Kala Pul were moved to this large stretch of water-logged land — that lay wedged between Korangi road, Malir River and Manzoor Colony nallah — on the orders of the government (commissioner Karachi) to make room for DHA phases I and II. Its impoverished residents provided unskilled labour for various sectors; for example, as coolies at the railway station, manual workers at the harbour, construction workers at the many upmarket residential localities springing up in the vicinity at the time, etc.
Through the years, the residents of Qayyumabad have consistently maintained that DHA has unlawfully grabbed 53.22 acres that are part of their locality, including 30.32 acres earmarked as amenity areas to serve their needs. However, their negligible political and financial clout puts them at a huge disadvantage in trying to establish their claim. They are, after all, up against DHA, the country’s most powerful land authority that provides real estate windfalls to the men in uniform while catering to the residential and commercial aspirations of the super-rich.
The saga began on Dec 6, 1979 when, in response to the defence ministry’s insatiable appetite for land, BoR Sindh (the original owner of all land in the province) allotted the Pakistan Defence Officers Cooperative Housing Society (PDOCHS) — the predecessor of DHA Karachi — 640 acres on a 99-year lease, parts of which were initially designated as DHA Phase IX but later became what is today known as Phase VII extension.
Four years later, on Jan 26, 1984, the defence ministry itself de-notified (excluded) the katchi abadis of upper Gizri, Machhi para and Qayyumabad from the limits of the Clifton Cantonment, insisting that the government of Sindh cater for them. Once the area reverted to BoR Sindh, the government of Sindh directed KMC to plan and provide for the needs of these katchi abadis.
A survey of Qayyumabad conducted by the relevant BoR officials, the results of which were later recorded on a map dated July 17, 1985, shows the area of Qayyumabad as being 163.18 acres. Once transferred to KMC, Qayyumabad became the responsibility of the katchi abadi department.
DHA Karachi claims that 53 acres of its land was erroneously transferred to Qayyumabad by the Sindh government and that the Survey of Pakistan map of 1989 shows the katchi abadi spread over 109 acres only.
Subsequently, KMC developed a master plan for Qayyumabad over the area of 163.18 acres including 30.32 acres specified for amenities, and the settlement was notified under MLO 183 as a katchi abadi by the government on Nov 13, 1986. (Any settlement in Karachi existing from before March 23, 1985 qualifies to be regularised as a katchi abadi, which gives ownership rights to the residents and entitles them to municipal services.)
A detailed Qayyumabad katchi abadi layout plan was thus finalised by KMC and subsequently gazetted by the Sindh government. The map shows the contentious 30.32 acres reserved for amenities including a primary school, secondary school, hospital, college, graveyard and park, etc. Other pieces of land were designated for a Karachi Water and Sewage Board (KWSB) sump, a Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) substation, katchi abadi offices, etc.
Qayyumabad layout map — showing amenities including a primary school, secondary school, college, playground, hospital, electrical substation, etc — gazetted by the Sindh government in February 1987.
The process was completed with due recourse to the public. A brief presented by KMC in a meeting on Jan 4, 2004, held under the chairmanship of the chief secretary Sindh with DHA officers attending, recalled that, “Before approval of layout plan … public objections were invited through leading newspapers but no objection on the planning of katchi abadi was filed by DHA or otherwise by any agency….”
DHA’s tactics
Meanwhile DHA Karachi had come into existence through Presidential Order Number 7 of 1980 issued by Gen Ziaul Haq. In the late ‘80s, well after the defence ministry itself had excluded Qayyumabad from the limits of Clifton Cantonment, a certain retired major Humayun Butt became exceedingly active in the construction business. Very well connected, with several army generals among his extended family, the major managed to get the 30.32 acres declared as Humayun Commercial which also appears in DHA Karachi maps.
Aye watan ke sajeeley jawano
meray DHA tumharey liey hain
https://www.dawn.com/news/1279039/qayyumabads-long-battle-against-dha
Qayyumabad’s long battle against DHA
KARACHI: In late 2005, a meeting was called by the then commander V Corps, Lt Gen Syed Athar Ali Shah. Aside from a select group of officers in uniform who were present on the occasion, several officials from the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) had also been summoned. They included, among others, the then nazim Mustafa Kamal, municipal commissioner Lala Fazalur Rahman, as well as Bilal Manzar and Mazhar Khan of the katchi abadi and land departments.
According to a source present at the meeting, the CDGK officials were given a dressing-down because they were creating “problems” for the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Karachi, whose executive board is headed by the commander of the Karachi-based V Corps. “It was a typical case of the military authorities flexing their muscles to intimidate civilian officials,” said Adil Abbasi, former deputy director katchi abadi (planning) Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).
The particular “problem” the military authorities wanted to address that day was the resistance that some KMC/CDGK officials had been putting up since 20 years against DHA Karachi’s demand to surrender land earmarked for the development of amenities for Qayyumabad — a katchi abadi situated along Korangi road near the KPT Flyover.
Corrupt provincial government officials from the higher bureaucracy with vested interests of their own had colluded to issue a notification acceding to DHA’s demand several months ago on Feb 2, 2005. (The Sindh government’s machinations whereby they obliged the military authorities are detailed later in this story.) But some local government officials were still holding out, unwilling to hand over possession of land that had been allocated for Qayyumabad’s amenities, and this was what had evidently prompted DHA Karachi to bring in the big guns.
The local elections in December last year, however, have spurred Qayyumabad residents to mount a fresh campaign to reclaim the land they say is rightfully theirs. Among them is Shamshad Khan, Qayyumabad union council’s newly elected UC nazim. Son of a veteran local politician, he and his father — as well as other residents of the area — have had run-ins with DHA officials in the past over the acres in contention, which is why DHA had never managed to actually take physical possession of the land. “On one occasion, I beat up [retired] Major Tatheer Abbas — a DHA official from its land department — when he’d arrived to knock down the graveyard wall,” said Mr Shamshad. “He ended up with 22 stitches.”
Home to more than 70,000 people in an area of only 109 acres, Qayyumabad is one of the most densely populated and polluted residential localities of Karachi. — Fahim Siddiqi
80-sq yard homes and no amenities
Confined within 109 acres, Qayyumabad katchi abadi is one of the most densely populated and polluted residential areas of the city. It is home to more than 70,000 people — including Pakhtun, Punjabi, Sindhi, Baloch and Urdu-speaking ethnicities, as well as Christians and scheduled caste Hindus — who live in cramped abodes no bigger than 80 square yards that jostle each other for space and have nowhere to expand except vertically. Consequently, illegal construction of multiple floors, with its attendant risks, is common. “As per standard town-planning principles, at less than six square yards per person, the dead in a DHA graveyard have more space than a person living in Qayyumabad,” remarked a former deputy director KMC. According to Mr Shamshad, “There isn’t a single public school here, nor a playground or dispensary”.
On the face of it, there seems little reason for this once marshy piece of land to have caused so much friction between DHA and KMC/CDGK authorities since the late ‘80s. There is no contiguity between the land allocated for Qayyumabad’s amenities and the rest of DHA that lies south of the katchi abadi. In fact, these 30 acres along with the built up area of Qayyumabad do not even fall within the eight DHA phases in District South; they are part of District Korangi. However, commercial developers have always viewed these 30 acres as potentially lucrative real estate. Their assessment is being borne out by the sky-high prices that plots carved out of this land command today.
The dense confines of Qayyumabad with DHA in the background: the contentious 30 acres can be seen towards the bottom left. ─ Fahim Siddiqi
Till the late 1960s, Qayyumabad was just another shantytown in Karachi’s south. But its population rapidly swelled between 1968 and 1976 when squatters from near Kala Pul were moved to this large stretch of water-logged land — that lay wedged between Korangi road, Malir River and Manzoor Colony nallah — on the orders of the government (commissioner Karachi) to make room for DHA phases I and II. Its impoverished residents provided unskilled labour for various sectors; for example, as coolies at the railway station, manual workers at the harbour, construction workers at the many upmarket residential localities springing up in the vicinity at the time, etc.
Through the years, the residents of Qayyumabad have consistently maintained that DHA has unlawfully grabbed 53.22 acres that are part of their locality, including 30.32 acres earmarked as amenity areas to serve their needs. However, their negligible political and financial clout puts them at a huge disadvantage in trying to establish their claim. They are, after all, up against DHA, the country’s most powerful land authority that provides real estate windfalls to the men in uniform while catering to the residential and commercial aspirations of the super-rich.
The saga began on Dec 6, 1979 when, in response to the defence ministry’s insatiable appetite for land, BoR Sindh (the original owner of all land in the province) allotted the Pakistan Defence Officers Cooperative Housing Society (PDOCHS) — the predecessor of DHA Karachi — 640 acres on a 99-year lease, parts of which were initially designated as DHA Phase IX but later became what is today known as Phase VII extension.
Four years later, on Jan 26, 1984, the defence ministry itself de-notified (excluded) the katchi abadis of upper Gizri, Machhi para and Qayyumabad from the limits of the Clifton Cantonment, insisting that the government of Sindh cater for them. Once the area reverted to BoR Sindh, the government of Sindh directed KMC to plan and provide for the needs of these katchi abadis.
A survey of Qayyumabad conducted by the relevant BoR officials, the results of which were later recorded on a map dated July 17, 1985, shows the area of Qayyumabad as being 163.18 acres. Once transferred to KMC, Qayyumabad became the responsibility of the katchi abadi department.
DHA Karachi claims that 53 acres of its land was erroneously transferred to Qayyumabad by the Sindh government and that the Survey of Pakistan map of 1989 shows the katchi abadi spread over 109 acres only.
Subsequently, KMC developed a master plan for Qayyumabad over the area of 163.18 acres including 30.32 acres specified for amenities, and the settlement was notified under MLO 183 as a katchi abadi by the government on Nov 13, 1986. (Any settlement in Karachi existing from before March 23, 1985 qualifies to be regularised as a katchi abadi, which gives ownership rights to the residents and entitles them to municipal services.)
A detailed Qayyumabad katchi abadi layout plan was thus finalised by KMC and subsequently gazetted by the Sindh government. The map shows the contentious 30.32 acres reserved for amenities including a primary school, secondary school, hospital, college, graveyard and park, etc. Other pieces of land were designated for a Karachi Water and Sewage Board (KWSB) sump, a Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) substation, katchi abadi offices, etc.
Qayyumabad layout map — showing amenities including a primary school, secondary school, college, playground, hospital, electrical substation, etc — gazetted by the Sindh government in February 1987.
The process was completed with due recourse to the public. A brief presented by KMC in a meeting on Jan 4, 2004, held under the chairmanship of the chief secretary Sindh with DHA officers attending, recalled that, “Before approval of layout plan … public objections were invited through leading newspapers but no objection on the planning of katchi abadi was filed by DHA or otherwise by any agency….”
DHA’s tactics
Meanwhile DHA Karachi had come into existence through Presidential Order Number 7 of 1980 issued by Gen Ziaul Haq. In the late ‘80s, well after the defence ministry itself had excluded Qayyumabad from the limits of Clifton Cantonment, a certain retired major Humayun Butt became exceedingly active in the construction business. Very well connected, with several army generals among his extended family, the major managed to get the 30.32 acres declared as Humayun Commercial which also appears in DHA Karachi maps.
Aye watan ke sajeeley jawano
meray DHA tumharey liey hain
https://www.dawn.com/news/1279039/qayyumabads-long-battle-against-dha
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