MUST our state be driven to action only after it has forced desperate citizens to grovel for something they should be morally entitled to? A large number of affectees of Karachi’s slipshod ‘development’ projects gathered on Sunday under the banner of the Ghar Bahali Rally to shake the authorities out of their stupor and address their plight. It may be recalled that the state has, in recent years, proceeded with the wholesale destruction of various irregular settlements along previously neglected nullahs and rail lines in Karachi. The affectees either lost their homes completely or were deprived of large parts of them as pathways were literally cut right through residences to make way for storm water drainage upgradation and intra-city transportation projects, etc. In response to widespread criticism by rights organisations of the manner in which people were being displaced, the state had promised to compensate the affectees by offering them either a rent support package or alternative accommodation. As the Sunday rally showed, those promises do not seem to have been kept in full.
This problem is not Karachi-specific. Our politicians are deeply fond of their grand ‘development’ projects but usually neglect to account for the negative externalities these may create. It is easy, and cruel, to write off the tragedies inflicted on those affected by them as something they somehow ‘deserve’ for ‘encroaching’ on state land. However, in many cases, the land in question is found to have been fraudulently ‘leased’ to the residents by unscrupulous elements from within state authorities. Even if that may not be the case, the state cannot just ignore its moral responsibility towards citizens whom it is depriving of the roof over their heads. In Karachi and elsewhere in the country, the state must act with compassion when dealing with those who stand to lose the most from its schemes and provide an adequate remedy for any losses citizens may have to bear.
Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2023