The Lyari Expressway project is being carried out in gross violation of people's fundamental and constitutional rights. National Highway Authority (NHA) has nothing to do with the welfare of public and is working only to appease the army.
These views were expressed by the Chairman Action Committee for Civic Problems, Baseer Naveed during a seminar titled "The Resettlement Issue of the Lyari Expressway Project" organised by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), here on Thursday.
Baseer was critical of the way the project is being carried out and alleged that without conducting consultation at any level the authority was arbitrarily displacing the people, living there for centuries.
He mentioned that the project would affect about 49 communities without taking their genuine concerns into account or providing them a suitable alternate.
The Action Committee chairman recalled that the resettlement policy approved by the President Musharraf envisaged the resettlement of those affected in the nearby area to the project site but in contrary, they were being shifted to remote areas where no proper arrangements have been made for the availability of basic amenities like electricity, water, gas etc.
He further pointed out that the project was also bound to harm the environment, as no prior environment impact assessment has been conducted.
Baseer said that it was a federal government's project being executed by NHA wherein the city government was being used to displace the poor masses. Referring to land acquisition act, he stated that there should be a tribunal to receive and look into the complaints of the displaced people and a comprehensive survey before any demolition, but no such steps was taken.
He said that the compensation package announced by the government for the affected persons was also being delayed by bureaucracy and was released only when he invited a UN team to intervene in the matter.
He alleged official machinery for certain manipulation in the award of compensation package, especially in land allotments. He also termed the projected cost of the project Rs 5.1 billion as a wrong figure and mentioned it would cost at least Rs 8.7 billion. Baseer also threw light on various similar projects conceived by previous governments but was not implemented for one or the other reason.
Defending the project, Project Director Lyari Expressway Resettlement Project (LERP), Shafiqur Rehman Paracha observed that the shifting process of any old colony has never been an easy task and if 9000 families are being shifted from the project site there must be some consensus or agreement of the affected ones involved.
He claimed that the whole resettlement process was being carried out in close consultation with all the stakeholders and there was no use of force at all involved in it.
He mentioned that 50 percent of those affected had been shifted to three sites allotted including Hawksbay, Baldia and Taiser. While, the remaining affected persons would soon be shifted.
He rejected all the allegations of manipulation in the award of compensation and land allotments and said that far better living environment were being provided than what they used to live in. Residing beside the river, they were on high risk, it was government's responsibility to shift them to safer place, Paracha remarked.
Earlier, Project Director Lyari Expressway, Yousuf Barakzai highlighted the salient features of the project and hoped that the completion of the project would ease out the traffic congestion in the city to a considerable extent.
He mentioned that the project was the shortest alignment between Maripur and Sohrab Goth, comprising a distance of 16-1/2 kilometres. The expressway would not have any traffic signal or speed breaker to ensure smooth and speedy flow of traffic and would have 4 interchanges and 8 bridges.
He told the gathering that 50 percent alignment of the project had been handed over to NHA and if the remaining was handed over to it by December 2004, the project would be completed by end of 2005.
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