Since about six months a lot was being read in print and heard on the Screen, in the backdrop of increasing public eyes raising, the loud talk that the Sindh Government including Mr. Asif Ali Zardari as PPP head was now so serious in tackling Mafias particularly the Land Mafia. After so much and so long big mouth openings the result came in shape of an action plan under which area SHO is to list out names of known criminals, gangsters and land grabbers and send it to the IGP and Rangers to target actions in consultation with home minister and a special cell of intelligence bureau and the ISI to co ordinate with local police. People who could help inform the authorities about any “criminals or gangsters or target killers were asked to pass on such information to the authorities. The most interesting and in fact a mirror showing what actually would be the net product at the end is that such civic minded people have been advised to inform the concerned at an email NCMC_sindhfloods@hotmail.com which is of flood control people. So in our today’s good governance the land mafia is to be tackled and handled by flood control people and likewise Traffic Accidents would be controlled perhaps by Customs Department. Though not surprising for this senior citizen as like silent majority he knows well that the general security that of masses and of land is not of any importance since a decade for our rules but only of themselves and their families, yet was pained to see that despite spending huge on wasteful computerization and Departmental websites from the national exchequer of this debit ridden country the email address for passing such sensitive information is associated with unsecured free Hotmail purely in hands of “world policeman” territory.
During Nawaz Sharif period when people were being urged to pass on information of tax evaders promising information will be kept confidential, as a I fool I obtained a written quotation from a so called Healer and passed on to Nawaz Sharif Secretariat to see if the Healer was really paying income tax in proportion to what he charged from one person multiplied by how many people in a week bought medicine from him in his own words. In return I was asked by the income tax department to prove that the Healer concerned was not paying any income tax. Next time I obtained a similar quotation-cum-prescription from another such a Hakeemjee and mailed it by name to the then Chairman CBR who never gave me any response. However within a fortnight the said Hakeemjee wrote me that he sent me quotation thinking I was a shareef adamee but I was a paka…….. The general belief is where ever people are advised to pass on information on the pretext of patriotism or service to the country the basic idea behind is that since concerned authorities do not intend to give any harm to perpetrators and criminals hence from people their names are taken for a little action telling these criminals that authorities did not intend to harm them but this and that foolish street man had written his name hence this little perforce action but with a advice to criminals to teach a lesson this informer.
The Additional District Officer & Collector (Revenue)-IV Malir Zone, City District Government Karachi prepared as signed by him on 11/04/2009 a List of Land grabbers/Encroachers in Bin Qasim Town Area showing the names of Land Grabbers/Encroachers, place of encroachment and Jurisdiction of Police Station. In this list for example at serial No. 01 is the name Akhtar Tanoli as Land Grabber/Encroacher and Chowki Khuldabad and Police Station Shah Latif as the jurisdiction. At S. NO. 73 is the name Malik Rifat & Malik Asghar resident of Gulistan Society described as the Land Grabber/Encroacher and Khuldabad Police Station as area police. A total number of 7956 encroachments were listed on the Government land. These are the known cases while the number of encroached plots of individuals and cooperative societies can not be counted for.
The point is while we the nation is told that the SHOs will prepare the list the question is has the concerned SHOs registered any proper FIRs against the persons officially named in the above List and have any action so far, practically any remotest even, ever been taken on that list by IGP? The most honourable and notable Mr. Ardeshir Cowasjee can well answer it with hundred percent authenticity. No one particularly the political leadership has any remotest sincere interest to look into this matter as it can not afford annoyance of its middle and lower ranks who are mostly the land grabbers or are fully on the back of them. Some six months back in an interview by a weekly Overseas Pakistanis publication of Karachi the Overseas Pakistanis Federal Minister a MQM big wig was questioned that the Mehran Town Housing Scheme Karachi exclusively for Overseas Pakistanis was almost fully encroached upon while his own party members were also involved. His reply was it could be from lower level MQM activists and as a Minister he was very concerned about it and would soon visit the site to know the fact and to provide relief to the affected Overseas Pakistanis. So far there is no news of his visit. He is a sincere educated man but he knows well his helplessness even through hands of his own party workers hence why to visit. From PPP (Plot Plundering People) no one should ever even dream of any action against encroachments. The land encroachment in one shape or the other but on a very small scale and only occasionally is a universal matter in Asian and Middle East countries but it should not be forgotten that it was PPP rule in 70s which patronized the encroachments in the shape of illegal and at throw away price allotment of government and amenity land to cronies. The above action plan is only to fool the ordinary masses and nothing else. Two prime plots at Clifton was silently allotted to one big gun who knowing well soon the press will smell it within days sold it in many crores. When the news broke the then PPP Chief Minister Sindh replied that why press and people were crying if a “poor” man had got some profit.