Karachi: Scheme 33's Saadi Town residents lack basic facilities

[Naveed Yaseen]

By M Farhan Zaheer

KARACHI: Residents of Saadi Town, situated in Scheme 33, are living in utter despair and hopelessness in the absence of basic facilities despite paying dues regularly.

The project was launched by Pak Land Housing Project 28 years ago, but the developers have not been able to provide committed facilities to the residents.

All Pakistan Property Purchaser Welfare Association Chairman Rashid Ali Khan told The News “there are seven blocks in Saadi Town and 4,327 plots. Of these, houses have been constructed on some 1,100 plots, but the occupants face a dearth of civic amenities.”

The management has imposed a self-made system of taxes, which are much higher when compared with other schemes. The management had vowed to complete various projects for supply of electricity, gas, water and transport as well as construction of hospitals and schools, but these are yet to be implemented.

“In spite of paying heavy taxes, the management of Saadi Town has not provided even basic facilities like proper electricity, water and gas,” Rashid said, adding “a double fee of Rs14,000 per plot was being collected for providing gas connection from Sui Southern Gas Company, which should be Rs7,000.”

The residents of the town are compelled to pay taxes to the management. Though there is electricity in the town, most of the residents have taken illegal connections. As there is no boundary wall, incidences of theft and robbery are common in the area.

Saadi Town is situated in the limits of Malir Cantonment, so plot purchasers have to pay transfer fee to both Malir Cantonment and Pak Land Housing Project. Rashid said the residents of the scheme were from the middle or lower income groups, who are not able to raise their concerns on a proper platform.

Despite repeated attempts to contact, officials of Pak Land Housing Project were not available for comments.

Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD) Chairman Babar Mirza Chughtai, who is also chairman of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s standing committee on housing and construction, said “we are only concerned with the housing schemes whose management is a member of ABAD.”

He said ABAD could not take action on its own as it had no authority and also the FPCCI could only facilitate builders or housing schemes.

However, officials of ABAD did admit that a number of cases of deception were being reported in Scheme 33, Gulshan-e-Maymar and Ahsanabad, where cases of dual or triple ownership were found for a single plot.

Rashid disclosed numerous illegal housing schemes in Scheme 33 were successfully running media campaigns on local cable networks. “Since these builders do not have No objection Certificate (NOC) for advertisement, original map and sales from the government, they advertise on local cable networks from where they get potential buyers and exploit simple people by offering attractive schemes.

“These illegal schemes are rampant in Scheme 33 and the government needs to take strict action against them,” Rashid added.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=176822