The following is a collection of scribblings I noted down while researching for a project in University.
Bahria Town in connivance with Sindh government functionaries is continuing to acquire thousands of acres of land in district Jamshoro, adjacent to district Malir.
the indigenous Sindhi and Baloch communities in Malir district were strong-armed into ‘selling’ their land — which they had lived on and cultivated since generations — for Bahria Town Karachi (BTK).
a two-pronged assault. On the one hand, the Malir police, under SSP Rao Anwar at the time, carried out raids on the goths and booked locals on fake terrorism charges; on the other, Bahria personnel, including a retired colonel, constantly threatened and intimidated them.
Anwar Burfat. He was among a group of goth residents who agreed to speak with Dawn at a restaurant close to Safoora Goth roundabout.
Sardar Malik Asad Sikandar, PPP MPA from Jamshoro is one of the most influential feudals in Sindh. He is chief of the Burfat tribe; with around 100 sub-tribes, it is the biggest of the four tribes in Kohistan. Each tribe has its own sardar, but — and this is why Malik Asad is known as the ‘King of Kohistan’ — he is the ‘sardar of sardars’.
Powerful connections are also forged through hunting expeditions hosted by Malik Asad in Kohistan for Arab royalty and assorted members of the Pakistani elite — including at least one retired judge
the March 21 verdict categorically said: “BTLK [Bahria Town Limited, Karachi] has no right, title, interest or possession of any other land owned by the Government of Sindh other than 16,896 acres…The government of Sindh and the MDA shall ensure that any land beyond this stands retrieved and no excess land shall be allowed to be occupied by BTLK. Any violation of this direction shall entail criminal action both against the functionaries of government of Sindh, MDA and the management of BTLK or whosoever is found responsible.”
there are clear signs of expansion into district Jamshoro,
“No one can hunt without the sardar’s permission anywhere in Kohistan,” said a local who has worked in the wildlife sector for 13 years. He described the camps of the Arab hunting parties as huge, accommodating at least 100 people at every meal, adding with a laugh, “Everything conceivable is provided for them”.
Malik Asad, however, refuted such allegations, saying: “We’re here to solve any issue that the people face. We wouldn’t allow any ziyadati to be done with them.”
But there are limits even to the tribal chieftain’s enormous power. That became evident when Bahria made known its intention to acquire land in Jamshoro a few years ago. In the words of a local contractor, “Malik Riaz went and complained to Zardari that this man is giving me grief all the time. Baray saeen became furious with the sardar”.
That Mr Zardari and Malik Asad’s relationship remains strained is clear.
“We wanted to get our land regularised so it wouldn’t be so easy to grab it. But the sardar ordered us not to, saying ‘do you want me to suffer the same fate as Zulfiqar Mirza?’
(An excerpt from the JIT report investigating the fake accounts case reads: “Bahria Town was recipient of huge acreage of state land for BTK and was occupying huge tracts of adjacent private land with the connivance of government of Sindh. Hence, the Rs10.02 billion was a kickback, Rs8.3bn of which was paid by Bahria through a joint account with Mushtaq Ahmed, confidante of Mr Asif Ali Zardari.”)
Malik Nadir, a close relative of Malik Asad and a major landowner himself, named Zain Malik and Malik Akhtar, both of Bahria Town, and told Dawn on the record that they “are purchasing land and papers in deh Sari [also in district Jamshoro] and deh Mole. DC Jamshoro is the helping hand. They are buying it for Bahria Town expansion. Buying and selling of land is prohibited in that area. They are doing it illegally”.
He has recently updated Dawn that “they have completed their target in Mole, have bought almost 10,000 acres of land there. No more purchasing is being done there”.
While Bahria told Dawn that details of its land acquisition in Jamshoro had been shared with the Supreme Court, it did not respond to any other queries put to it by Dawn.
Several villagers in district Jamshoro reveal they are being, or have been, coerced to surrender their land at Rs70,000 per acre. (Consider that back in 2007, 120 square yard plot in Taiser Town, Malir, was selling for Rs120,000. At that rate, even then, 12 years ago, one acre of land in the area now affected would be worth Rs4,000,000!)
The land ‘sold’ by the villagers is then purchased by individuals fronting for massive land developers in the area at Rs2,000,000 per acre, an astronomical 2,757 per cent increase. The figures were confirmed to Dawn by a local broker. In many cases, even the pittance promised to the owners has not fully materialised.
With 4,840 sq yards to an acre, Rs2,000,000 works out at approximately Rs400,000 per 1,000 sq yards. Further, to gauge the eye-watering fortunes being raked in, consider that the price of a 1,000 sq yard plot in Bahria’s Sports City — which currently extends at least up to the boundary of Malir’s deh Bolari where it meets district Jamshoro’s deh Mole — was Rs9,200,000 plus at the time of balloting in 2016. That’s another 2,200pc gain.
when contacted, DC Jamshoro retired Capt Fariduddin Mustafa, said: “No recent land transaction has taken place, although some private people may be selling or buying land.” (The DC, appointed by the provincial government, heads the revenue and land administration in a district.)
from numerous interviews of Jamshoro locals, it appears that government land is being illegally procured under the guise of private transactions.
the digitised land record in the Sindh government’s much-vaunted Land Revenue Management Information System has mysteriously been inaccessible since months. This fortifies the claims made by those cited above, and calls for an investigation.
An excerpt from NAB’s second report, dated Nov 19, 2018 — a copy of which is in Dawn’s possession — and signed by Qamar Abbas Abbasi, Deputy Director/Investigation Officer, NAB Karachi, reads: “It is also submitted that the CEO Ali Ahmed Riaz Malik…and the above named 5x frontmen of BTPL [Waseem Riffat, Waqas Riffat, Shahid Mehmood, Mohammed Awais and Faisal Sarwar] have never joined instant investigation, despite issuance of several call-up notices. The recent call-up notices issued to the known addresses of said 5x frontmen were returned undelivered.”
unlike the land grab earlier, the modus operandi this time around is far more opaque, with several tiers of frontmen between the ‘seller’ and the actual beneficiaries.
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