• About Us
  • The TFT Story
  • Team
  • Write for TFT
  • Online advertisement tariff
  • Donate To Us
The Friday Times - Naya Daur
Thursday, February 2, 2023
  • Home
  • Editorials
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Features
  • Spotlight
  • Videos
  • Citizens’ Voice
  • Lifestyle
  • Editor’s Picks
  • Good Times
  • More
    • About Us
    • Team
    • Write for TFT
    • The TFT Story
    • Donate To Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Editorials
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Features
  • Spotlight
  • Videos
  • Citizens’ Voice
  • Lifestyle
  • Editor’s Picks
  • Good Times
  • More
    • About Us
    • Team
    • Write for TFT
    • The TFT Story
    • Donate To Us
No Result
View All Result
The Friday Times - Naya Daur
No Result
View All Result
Home SPOTLIGHT

The Poor Are Being Evicted To Create Gated Communities For The Affluent Classes Of Pakistan

Small farmers and old residents in suburban Pakistan are being displaced to cater to elite housing projects. This should stop.

Faryal Rashid by Faryal Rashid
September 23, 2022
in SPOTLIGHT, Features
The Poor Are Being Evicted To Create Gated Communities For The Affluent Classes Of Pakistan
440
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Yaseen Gujjar, a resident of Dhok Said Muhammad in Morgah, Rawalpindi, mumbles: “Meray pairon ke neechay se zameen khich gayi” or “The earth beneath my feet was snatched from right under me”, while explaining the decades-old legal battles he’s fought with Defence Housing Authority (DHA).

Currently, his ownership of almost 80 kanals of ancestral land is endangered by the rapid development of DHA Phase 4, close to Orchard Area in Rawalpindi. This story is one of the testimonies of the victims of large-scale projects that threaten to displace thousands in their greed to establish elite gated housing communities.

Yaseen’s family has been based in the area for four generations and relies on their small business of milk farming to earn a living. Housing societies have been trying to lay claim on their ancestral land. His fight against these powerful interests began almost two decades ago.

In 2002, after the death of Yaseen’s father, a well-known land tycoon tried to snatch the family’s property which was followed by a gruelling court battle fought by Yaseen. The court ultimately ruled in Yaseen’s favour but the story didn’t end there. Using pressure tactics, they convinced Yaseen’s brother to sell 40 kanals of the family’s property in 2007 out of the total 80 kanals that belonged to the two brothers. Yaseen’s brother also used a power of attorney that was forged 2 years after the death of their father to transfer the remaining 40 kanal land to the housing society as well.

“It still surprises me how they can keep a man alive for two years after his death and transfer property without the consent of all legal heirs” said Yaseen. He further explained how none of these documents were signed off by him and everything was done without his knowledge.

Yaseen filed another court case and managed to receive an injunction on his share of the property in the High Court. Afterwards, civil judge Murad Abbas overruled the stay order and scrapped the court case altogether. Yaseen remarked that the stay order was violated, and that he faced immense difficulty in appealing in the high court due to objection notices filed by the rival party. His rivals exploited judicial loopholes, used their contacts within the system, and even bribed his lawyers to legalize their unjust land grabbing.

Yaseen’s brother passed away a year back which made his plight even worse as he now had to singularly tackle systemic oppression head-on. Now, Yaseen had to fight an uphill battle against a real estate mogul with limited resources and zero contacts that could help him navigate through the system.

Recently, the DHA announced its new development project, DHA-IV, that extends beyond Orchard Area close to Morgah. Given the ambiguous rulings of his previous court battles, DHA exploited the opportunity and tried to book Yaseen & his family under false charges based on a fake report prepared by a local patwari. The SHO, stationed at Morgah thana at the time, conducted his own investigation into the matter and refused to help the authorities after he’d concluded that this land was indeed being illegally snatched.

Interestingly, this SHO was replaced within a week. His successor, SHO Aftab, fully supported the DHA in their cause. DHA authorities also approached the Assistant Commissioner and filed applications in different departments to book the family under false charges.

On April 4, 2022, DHA launched its first attack, according to Yaseen’s son, they justified their actions by stipulating that nearly 8 kanal of land lay directly under their family’s property and belonged to DHA. This operation was strategically timed during Jummah prayers with fewer people around to help. Fully equipped with bulldozers, DHA security personnel were ordered to start the process of encroachment. Repeated requests by Yaseen and his family to halt these activities were answered by the phrase, “we were ordered by Army to launch this operation“. Upon facing unrelenting resistance from family members, the security personnel ultimately backed away.

On August 15th, around 9 a.m. DHA was able to successfully bulldoze approximately 18 kanals of land within a couple of hours before the family reached the site (ref. khasra 1855). A fight ensued upon the family’s arrival, DHA authorities backed away again as the rightful owners strongly opposed this operation. A couple of DHA representatives asked to sit and talk with the owners so the family entertained them at their residence close by. A DHA official, colonel Mudassir used this opportunity to call 15 and acted as if their representatives had been kidnapped, the complaint was lodged in Morgah thana. The family also lodged a complaint that their land was being illegally snatched. The inquiry was taken up by DSP Azhar Shah who is currently responsible for investigating the matter further. The family claims that DHA is still pressurising the authorities to somehow book them under false charges to clear their path and move forward with the illegal land grab.

In the face of adversity, first in the form of real estate moguls and then against a planned housing scheme, Yaseen has managed to maintain his resolve. Even now, he claims that he wishes to fight till the bitter end to receive a sliver of justice in this case. Others in his position typically end up giving away their inheritance as fighting these legal battles takes a financial and mental toll on the victims.

This case serves as one of the countless examples of land grabbing that disproportionately targets those that are easily chewed up by the system owing to the lack of resources at their disposal. The underprivileged are almost always forced to leave their habitat to make way for the elite. This behaviour continues unabated with housing schemes like DHA amassing more land each day under the guise of expansion and fashionable development.

Countrywide land grab

The Morgah case is not an isolated incident. Evidence from many other parts including Sindh shows how small farmers and the poor are being displaced to make way for elite housing schemes. Scholars such as Ayesha Siddiqa have pointed out how the security institutions have been expanding their control over land. In 2019, Supreme Court Judge Justice Gulzar Ahmed observed that “DHA of Karachi have encroached so far into the sea. If they had their way, they would build a city on the sea.”

In 2021, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Mohammad Qasim Khan lashed out at DHA and gave critical remarks against the land development projects backed by the military.

Gated communities: keeping the poor out                           

The fashionable phenomenon of large-scale housing projects and gated communities continues to pop up in different cities all over Pakistan. In the case of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, the scale of suburbanization is such that DHA Phase 1-5 and Phase 6 Extension are currently spread over 10,878 acres. To put things into perspective, the total area of Islamabad is 224,000 acres and almost 5% is owned by DHA alone.

These gated communities cater to the middle and high-income brackets only. Considering that all the aforementioned societies were developed in the recent past, it is quite natural to immediately dwell over the whereabouts of the people that were settled in these large swathes of land before its transfer to the elites.

Also Read:

You Have Your Pakistan, I Have Mine

How Jaun Elia Continues To Speak To Our Social Realities

A common characteristic noted upon entry into any of the above-mentioned societies is their clean and green environment. Unlike the clogged, polluted, and poorly planned clusters within Rawalpindi, these communities offer the elite and middle class in Pakistan an opportunity to effectively separate their residence from the poor. Those who can afford to take this step are increasingly flocking to these communities to either acquire residence or invest in the highly profitable real estate market. These factors allow these communities to expand and acquire more area within urban centres.

Each expansion campaign is followed by imagery and testimonies circulating on social media that involves the display of the extreme measures being employed against people that have been settled there for multiple generations.

These aesthetically appealing communities are built on the spilled blood and eviction of the locals, the question is whether we should allow this to continue.

Faryal Rashid is an activist working with Women Democratic Front Rawalpindi Islamabad. This interview was conducted in joint collaboration with Farhan Abbasi, a PhD history student at Quaid-e-Azam University.

 

Tags: Bahria TownArmypossessionrightshuman rightscrimelandmilitaryDHAfraudMalik Riaz
Previous Post

The Rising Cost Of A Cuppa Tea In Pakistan

Next Post

IMF Has Agreed To Ease Conditions, Increase Tranche Amount: Miftah Ismail

Faryal Rashid

Faryal Rashid

Next Post
Is This Year’s Dengue Outbreak Deadlier Than Before?

Is This Year's Dengue Outbreak Deadlier Than Before?

Comments 1

  1. SZS says:
    4 months ago

    Thanks for documenting and sharing this experience. Wondering where to find a piece of land where one can build a house which not tainted. We live in ‘Plotistan”. The only game in town!

Recent News

journalist Imran Riaz Khan

FIA Detains Journalist Imran Riaz Khan From Lahore Airport

February 2, 2023
PTI Prohibited Funding Case

IHC To Announce Verdict In PTI Prohibited Funding Case Today

February 2, 2023
No Room For Hate: Shahrukh Khan’s Fan Club Destroyed The Boycott

No Room For Hate: Shahrukh Khan’s Fan Club Destroyed The Boycott

February 2, 2023

Twitter

Newsletter



Donate To Us

The Friday Times – Naya Daur

THE TRUTH WILL OUT


The Friday Times is Pakistan’s first independent weekly, founded in 1989. In 2021, the publication went into collaboration with digital news platform Naya Daur Media to publish under a daily cycle.


Social Media

Latest News

  • All
  • News
  • Editorials
  • Features
  • Analysis
  • Lifestyle
journalist Imran Riaz Khan

FIA Detains Journalist Imran Riaz Khan From Lahore Airport

by News Desk
February 2, 2023
0

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cybercrime Wing has...

PTI Prohibited Funding Case

IHC To Announce Verdict In PTI Prohibited Funding Case Today

by Adeel Daniel
February 2, 2023
0

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) will announce the...

Social Feed

  • About Us
  • The TFT Story
  • Team
  • Write for TFT
  • Online advertisement tariff
  • Donate To Us

© 2022 All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Editorials
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Features
  • Spotlight
  • Videos
  • Citizens’ Voice
  • Lifestyle
  • Editor’s Picks
  • Good Times
  • More
    • About Us
    • Team
    • Write for TFT
    • The TFT Story
    • Donate To Us

© 2022 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist