C O L U M N S

NOW that the ‘arranged’ cacophony over the Kerry-Lugar affair has subsided — it served no purpose but to allow certain segments of society to let off steam — public ire should be directed towards the infliction upon the country of the Musharraf-inspired NRO, far more pernicious than the KLB.

A bit of governance from the government would not go amiss, and a general cleansing of the national mindset would be a positive start to progress.

Somerset Maugham, while analysing sin, observed, ‘Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-wracking vice that any man can pursue; it needs unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practised at spare moments; it is a whole-time job.’ Are our practitioners reading?

Since our politicians and leaders of all persuasions spend very little time in governance of the country or its provinces and their institutions, they have much time to perfect hypocrisy into a whole-time art form. Politicians never believe anything they say, and are amazed if others do.

On April 16, 2009, the PPP introduced The Sindh Protection and Prohibition [sic] of Amenity Plots Bill 2009, ‘to protect and prohibit the change of land use in respect of plots reserved for amenity purpose.’ The title of the bill, ‘… Prohibition of Amenity Plots …,’ is more revealing of the actual motive of our political parties than the stated goal which is to protect and prohibit the change of land use .…

The text of the bill reads: ‘Whereas it is expedient to protect and prohibit the change of land use in respect of plots reserved for amenity purposes in the Province of Sindh. It is hereby enacted as follows: 1. ‘(1) This Act may be called the Sindh Protection and Prohibition of Amenity Plots Act, 2009. It shall come into force at once and shall be deemed to have taken effect on and from 2nd day of May, 1994.

‘(2) In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context:- (i) ‘amenity plot’ means a piece of land granted, earmarked, used or intended to be used for parks, gardens, playgrounds, graveyards, roads, hospitals, schools, colleges, educational institutions, health institutions, reading rooms, libraries, community centres, treatment plants, power house, places for religious worship and open places kept for easement of expansion other than residential, commercial, industrial or for cottage industry….

‘(3) Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force or any judgment, order or decree of a court, no amenity plot shall be converted to or utilised for any other purpose, but subject to the provisions of section four of this Act.

‘(4) Whenever if the Provincial Assembly passes a resolution to the effect that an amenity plot may be converted to or utilised for any other purpose, the government shall, after receiving the resolution passed by the Assembly, process the matter in the prescribed manner.

‘(5) The provisions of the Act shall have overriding effect, notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force….

‘Statement of Objects and Reasons — To make the Provincial Assembly as legal forum for allowing change of land use in respect of amenity plots, it is expedient to enact a law entitled the Sindh Protection and Prohibition [sic] of Amenity Plots Act 2009.’

The italics are mine, and highlight important features and outrageous contradictions between sections of the proposed legislation. On the one hand, the bill seeks to ‘protect and prohibit the change of land use in respect of plots reserved for amenity purposes,’ while on the other it empowers the provincial assembly to pass ‘a resolution to the effect that an amenity plot may be converted to or utilised for any other purpose.’

Thus our provincial legislators are magically transformed into a ‘forum’ of town-planners and urban designers who can sense that an amenity plot is no longer required by the citizens and may be dishonestly converted to commercial or residential use. Our Karachi City Council has been operating thus for the past four years. What is the significance of the backdating of the effect of the proposed act to 1994? A study of the KDA Order of 1957, under which most of the development schemes of Karachi were crafted, will show that an amendment to Section 52A was introduced by Governor Mahmoud Haroon (RIP) in May 1994, mandating that ‘No amenity plot reserved for the purpose … shall be converted to or utilised for any other purpose.’ Now the fog begins to clear!

Can Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah clarify exactly which amenity plots are destined to benefit in the first phase from this piece of hypocritical legislation? Kidney Hill Park in Karachi Societies Union; Gutter Bagicha on the Mangophir Road; Costa Livina Revolving Restaurant in Clifton’s Bagh-i-Ibn-i-Qasim; innumerable converted parks and playgrounds in North Nazimabad, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Korangi and other such areas; Gujarat Club in Jamshed Quarter; Webb Ground in Lines Area; numerous amenity plots auctioned by CDGK; a hotel plot carved out of the Clifton Promenade; houses established on Mahmoodabad Sewage Treatment Plant; 25 bus-depot plots all over Karachi (KTC) and Sindh (SRTC)?

The naivety of our assembly members lies in hoping that the residents of this province and the courts of this country will stand by as silent spectators to the brazen negation of the constitution’s guarantee of the citizens’ ‘right to life.’ The judiciary would lose no time in striking down such environmentally-damaging and people-unfriendly legislation.

Remember, politicians are like acrobats. They keep their balance by saying the opposite of what they intend or do.

By Ardeshir Cowasjee