Living in Karachi.

Byline: Dr Noman Ahmed

TIMES are challenging for urban dwellers living in the corridors of the Karachi Circular Railway, nullahs and other similar locations. In keeping with judicial instructions, officials have been evicting settlers and demolishing structures to make way for KCR trains and anticipated wastewater and rainwater flows, while promising to provide alternative shelter. Yet, hundreds of KCR affectees have been living in the severe cold under the open sky. Despite political announcements, the chances of these hapless people acquiring shelter appear very remote. Whenever a rehabilitation and resettlement project has been launched in Karachi, outcomes have been undesirable.

When over 250,000 people were displaced by the Lyari Expressway development, a resettlement project was launched at a hefty cost. But many families were left out and had to attempt a futile pursuit of cash compensation and plots. The project is being investigated for reasons of transparency by a prime minister's inquiry commission. Lack of formal and targeted land supply for housing the urban poor leads to the growth of katchi abadis, many of which are prone to evictions. If evictees acquire some financial strength, they move into squatter settlements of their choice. This is a people-led option of rehabilitation, frowned on by officialdom. But katchi abadis are a response to the government's failed efforts to provide housing for low-income segments.

The absence of choices in large cities has led the poor to inhabit irregular spaces such as nullahbanks and semi-abandoned transit corridors like the KCR. Successive governments have indeed come up with rehabilitation schemes, but these have not kept pace with the growing number of people searching for shelter. Authorities initially attempted to bulldoze settlements but soon realised that it was an impossible task. Thereafter, they looked the other way as people settled at will. The phenomenon continues.

This syndrome is in need of a dispassionate analysis. It is evident that cities are inhabited by all manner of income groups. Cities that take care of only the rich will fail. In healthy cities, the poor have easy access to basic amenities. It is disappointing to note that successive governments have not given enough importance to housing. For example, the pro-poor Sindh Disposal of Urban Land Ordinance, 2002, was aimed at providing land for housing those seeking shelter through a targeted approach. The law led to...