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Half of city’s population lives in Katchi Abadis
62% of domestic workers are girls
Ex-MQM MNA dies
Something fishy
2 killed in ‘encounter’
Pedestrian killed in Lyari gang war
Funds for Jamia Hafsa (more) ‘Lal Masjid’ in Mohmand Agency
ANP-PKMAP alliance to benefit Pakhtuns: Asfandyar (more) APC, two posts blown up in attacks across NWFP, Fata (more) ‘Lal Masjid’ in Mohmand Agency (more) Benazir refuses to back uniformed president (more) Nawaz wanted to arrest Sajjad Ali Shah, says book (more) ‘US is supporting a collapsing regime’: Cohen (more)
Half of city’s population lives in Katchi Abadis
Housing has emerged as one of the most serious problems for the urban poor and middle classes and today even those with a monthly income of Rs20 to 25 thousand could not think of owning a flat or a plot to construct their houses, said Tasneem Ahmad Siddique, founder of Khuda Ki Basti, a programme for providing housing to the poor.
He was speaking at the weekly lecture programme of the Pakistan Peoples Party at the Peoples Secretariat on Sunday. The programme was on the topic of the emergence of Katchi Abadis and solution to people’s housing problems.
Siddiqui said that during the last seven to eight years the gap between the nation’s rich and poor had grown enormously and now one can see thousands of people sleeping in open spaces or living in subhuman conditions in the ever growing slums of the city.
He pointed out that 50% of the city’s population - i.e. more than 7.5 million people - lived in Katchi Abadis.
Tracing the history of the creation of Katchi Abadis Siddique said that the phenomena had now grown into an organised land invasion by the land grabbers, who worked in partnership with the police, the patwaris and the local councilors. More than 1,000 acres of government land around the settled acres was occupied every year by this partnership. The government had abandoned its duty of developing housing schemes for low income groups under the pressures of the World Bank, who had set such rules and procedures that had increased the prices of land. The result was that all housing schemes like Surjani, Gulzar-e-Hijri, Shah Latif Town, etc, were a failure.
On the other hand, informal housing in Katchi Abadis, although illegal, was growing by 9 to 10% yearly. Abadis like the most backward and subhuman Machar Colony were spreading overnight and even reclaiming land from the sea. While the cooperative sectors were hardly functioning, unfortunately, it was the informal sector which was looking after the housing needs of the low income groups. The need of the hour was that the public sector should look at the methods employed by the informal sector, eliminate the corruption element and provide land to low-income families at affordable prices, legally.
Agreeing with the argument of the program organisers that all people had equal rights on land and Pakistan People Party shall provide a “plot for every family.” he cautioned that housing was not plots alone and the party should work on a comprehensive package of education, health, family planning, recreation and micro-credit facilities in the new localities it proposes to develop for low-income groups.
Zahid Farooq, Programme Director of the “Urban Resource Center” in his presidential remarks severely criticised the government for playing into the hands of the land mafia. They are bulldozing old settled localities of the poor for creating spaces for commercial plazas, he said.
62% of domestic workers are girls
KARACHI, July 29: At least 62% of the children engaged in domestic jobs are girls, shows a study conducted recently by a local NGO under its rapid assessment project covering Islamabad and the four provincial capitals.
Based on selected localities and surveying 2,492 households, the study reveals that every fourth households in the country has child hired for domestic work and a majority of these children is female.
However, it identifies distinct provincial variations in the number of such domestic workers in different provincial centres. In Peshawar and Quetta, the proportion of females among these children is lower than in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad/ Rawalpindi.
The NWFP and Balochistan are dominated by relatively conservative families which do not prefer hiring a female domestic worker as they do not like girls’ mobility and employment. Many of the children interviewed for the research were in the age group of 6-10 years (27%) and 11-14 (42%).
Ex-MQM MNA dies
KARACHI, July 29: A former MNA of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Hasan Musana Alvi, was buried at the Yasinabad graveyard here on Sunday, a party official said.
He said Mr Alvi, 70, who was also a former member of the MQM Rabita Committee, died on Saturday night after protracted illness.
The burial was attended by party leaders, including Dr Farooq Sattar, Shaikh Liaquat Hussain, Anwar Alam and Abdul Hafeez.—APP
Something fishy
The News has learnt that there were five different species of fish found dead in the harbour - all weighing less than five grams each. There have been a few theories behind the discovery. On one hand, sources speculated that these fish may have come in search of food and died due to untreated water near the harbour. The second, and stronger, possibility is that these fish were dumped improperly after being caught on a large scale by fishing trawlers because they were not suitable for their purposes. In this regard, it may have been the weight and breed of these fish that the trawlers threw them back into the sea, the sources added. It is worth mentioning here that June to August is mating (breeding) season for fish, with many areas observing a seasonal ban on fishing activities.
2 killed in ‘encounter’
Two bandits were killed and a police constable injured during a police ‘encounter’ in the Malir City police jurisdiction on Sunday. The deceased were identified as Shakir alias Shaka and Ghulam Fareed, however PC Tariq Bhatti was injured in the encounter.
Bus overturns; 3 killed, 15 injured
Three persons including a woman were killed while 15 others injured when a bus overturned while negotiating a turn at Shah Noorani More, near Hub, some 160 kilometres from Karachi. The driver of a coaster carrying a family that was going to Noorani Mazaar for a picnic, when reaching near Shah Noorani Moore, lost control of the bus while negotiating a turn. As a result of which Shahida Khatoon, Mohammed Irfan and Abdur Rehman died while Gul Khan, Ali Khan, Danish, Zubaida, Mohammed Hanif, Farhan Ali, Shazia, Kashif, Mohammed Imran, Mahfooz, Arif, Ghafar, Mohammed Saif and Mohammad Imran and Ahmed sustained injuries. Edhi volunteers and police shifted the deceased and injured to Jam Ghulam Qadir Government Hospital, Hub, for first aid. They were later shifted to the Civil Hospital and Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Karachi. The police said that the family consisted of residents of Sarjani Town Karachi.
Pedestrian killed in Lyari gang war
Lyari town has been tense for the last few days owing to the failure of law enforcement agencies to arrest the gangsters of Rehman Dakait and Arshad Papu group, who roam in the area freely and resort to aerial fire to gain control of each other’s strongholds.
On Sunday, the aides of Rehman Dakait and Arshad Papu exchanged fire near Kameela stop, as a result of which a pedestrian Ghulam Mohammed, 25, was killed and Javed, 22, sustained injuries.
In the meantime, Ghaffar Zikri along with his accomplices shot at Zahid, brother-in-law of Lyari Town UC-6, Nazim, Majeed Baloch, in the Phool Pati Lane area and fled the scene.
Sources said that Majeed had earlier registered an FIR against Ghaffar Zikri and his aides with the Kalri police station for allegedly attempting to kill him and his brother. He has also nominated ASI Saleem Shah of the Baghdadi police station in the FIR alleging that Shah had tipped the gangsters about his (Majeed) presence in his office.
On the second day of his four-day visit to the district on Sunday, Asfandyar said the continued war on Pakhtun soil posed a grave threat to them and instead of struggling for their rights they were now worried more about their future generation.
He there is dire need for unity among Pakhtuns to confront various challenges. He said anti-Pakhtun elements have become a serious threat to their future. He said that during the current highly complicated situation, they were being killed in Bajaur, Waziristan, Peshawar, Karachi, Tank, Charsadda, Balochistan and Afghanistan.
She said she wouldn’t deny or confirm any meeting with President Musharraf till the final outcome of the negotiations. “I am in London holding (her party’s) parliamentary meeting and there the government’s spokesman has denied it and the Pakistani Embassy (in UAE) has also denied it,” she told a Pakistani private TV channel.
Benazir said she was not in a position to tell if some understanding has been reached between the government and the PPP. “Some headway has been made in the talks with the government, however more headway is needed,” she said. “Dialogue with the government was going on but a settlement had not been reached. When there is, we will surely inform.”
When asked by Geo TV about any future meeting between her and Musharraf, she replied: “It would be premature to say anything about it at this stage.” Responding to a question, she said the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) should become part of either the government or the opposition. The PPP would hold talks with the MMA if it is in the opposition. In case it sides with the government even then we are ready to go for talks with them. But the opposition will have to board one boat.”
Commenting on Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s statement that PPP would replace PML-Q she said the elements, who supported LFO are enjoying power. “We had developed differences with MMA over the LFO but we did not overlook their political role,” she added.
Speaking to Britain’s Sky News television from Leeds in northern England, Benazir said it was likely she would return from exile to stand in the next general elections, due by early next year. “I think the chances right now are pretty good. It’s about 90% out of 100 for me to stand in those elections,” she said.
She has had talks with Musharraf about a possible return to Pakistan but maintained she had grave reservations about a uniformed president. “It’s very important to deal with who’s there. He is the person there and if we can find a way to get the uniformed presidency out of the picture, we can find a way to get democracy back ... we will be looking forward. We’re not there yet.”
Put to her straight that she would not enter any kind of power sharing deal with President Musharraf as long as he remained head of the Army, Benazir replied: “That’s right. The post of the Army chief must be separated from that of the president.”
She said an amendment passed by Musharraf banning a twice-elected prime minister from seeking office a third time was “an issue which is part of the discussion between us”. “If he doesn’t bring the change, if the people of Pakistan, through their elected representatives wish to lift that ban, they certainly can,” she said. “(Exiled) former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and I have come to an understanding that we would lift this ban.”
Asked why she wanted to return to front-line Pakistani politics, Benazir said she felt her country was being threatened by extremists. “If the people from Pakistan vote for me, certainly I would to take on that job,” Benazir said.
“But this is more than a struggle for me: this is a struggle for the heart and the soul of Pakistan. We stand at the crossroads. Very critical choices have to be made between the forces of the past and the forces of the future. There is militancy, terrorism and violence. My government and I have had experience of dealing with it. If we could get another opportunity, I would certainly take the challenge.”
She added: “I don’t want the people of Pakistan to face terror at the hands of the Taliban and their allies in al-Qaeda and become refugees in foreign lands. I want to try and save my country, if I can,” she said.
In a German magazine interview to be published on Monday, Benazir warned of a looming Islamist revolution mounted from the country’s Madrassas. Benazir said she was planning her return to Pakistan this year to help stabilise the country in the face of the extremist threat.
“The Red Mosque was just a warm-up for what will happen if the religious schools are not disarmed,” Benazir told the news weekly Focus. She added that Islamist extremist leaders were plotting to overthrow Musharraf’s government and had converted Madrassas in cities into military headquarters with well-stocked arsenals.
She accused Musharraf of adopting an “appeasement policy” toward extremists that had only strengthened them. “We must pursue these people and take them to court,” she said. She admitted that she had made mistakes during her time in office in trying to work with the Taliban to pacify the country.