Pakistan: Misuse of agro-farms

Cities are built not for years but for centuries, for posterity lasting generation after generation. So was the concept and the master plan for Islamabad, the country's new capital. The plan clearly marked out the space, reserving special areas for the government offices, court buildings, business centres, industrial areas and residential sectors. Since the land to be occupied was to be dispossessed by thousands of farmers they were allotted residential plots in housing sectors as well as agro-farms which were expected to sustain their lives by growing crops and raising cattle. Of these 504 farms about 200 are now in the use of some of Pakistan's most powerful people. The allotment of the agro-farms was conditional to adhering to the stated use, and the misuse was warned to be penalized with cancellation. As over the years the capital city grew and the value of its real estate rose manifold quite a few of the original owners sold the farms to more enterprising investors. And these investors include two former presidents, same number of former prime ministers, some ex-ministers and a host of other old and new rich. The view is no more of green fields tended by the farming families but a row of high-wall palatial mansions, wedding halls, offices and even a clandestine night club. Not too surprisingly - if you know how tall walks the greed in the nation's capital - as all of this subversion of master plan was taking place the guardians of the city's master plan, Capital Development Authority, was sleeping, the sleep induced not by the load of work in the office but by the smell of red- and blue-backs or the fear of the slap from the above in the high government offices. No wonder as this rape of the countryside was in progress only a mile from the parliament building there was no 'calling attention notice', much less a serious debate - because only a fool would apply the axe to a branch he is sitting at. All along it was daylight robbery. And in the process out of the 504 agro-farms the use of about 200 is now out of sync with the allotted purpose. But the buck stops here, thanks to the notice taken by the Supreme Court. After initial hearing on Thursday the court ordered the Capital Development Authority to restore all 504 farmhouses to their sanctioned use as agricultural land within three weeks. In case the owners want to retain the farms they have to bring their use in line with the rules, which dictate a small two-room farm house. Since some of the owners are highly influential persons can the CDA implement the court's order, a high drama is in the making. We hope and expect the law to prevail whatever it costs. Not only these farmhouses have to be brought in line with their stated purpose, but there is a lot more work cut out for the authority - by none else but by itself by 'allowing' encroachments all over the place. Over the last few years the encroachers have been really on the rampage. What was supposed to be vacant spaces along the streams that flow through the city, plots were created to benefit resourceful people. The commercial buildings designed to be two or three-storey high have been allowed to add more floors. Even the small open places in the mini-markets in the sub-sectors have been allotted to favourites. So completely permeating is the encroachment fever gripping the Capital city that even otherwise the law-abiding residents have been tempted to tinker with building plans of their residences and sometimes illegally extend their boundaries to overlap footpaths and in some cases old graveyards. And all this encroachment, both legalised and illegal, has come with a horrific price. Most adversely affected are the services like water supply, drainage and sanitation. The city's most prestigious business acreage, the Blue Area, is no more an open, refreshing place to visit, but a bedlam difficult to walk through - what to talk of getting a reasonable place to park your car. It is so because the new structures have been added to the existing buildings which accommodate more offices and shops. Elsewhere in the city the conditions are even worse where gutters overflow and footpaths are used for parking. That the Supreme Court has delivered a crushing blow to the abusers living on the Garden Road it's great. What about the CDA which is supposed to be tasked with the implementation of the Islamabad master plan in letter and spirit without let and hindrance. We wait to hear the CDA.