City Govt, KPT accused of patronising land mafia

[LahoreEstate]

By: Shafi Baloch | Published: May 15, 2009
KARACHI - The City government, Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and Ministry of Ports and Shipping would be responsible if any disaster like Tsunami hits the coastal belt of the metropolitan in the future, as the mafias are occupying the lands by cutting the mangroves and filling the sea.
Addressing a Press conference at his residence here on Thursday, Haji Mohammad Younas, director Fishermen Co-Operative Society, warned the authorities concerned about the forthcoming threat.
Kiamari Town Naib Nazim, Mohammad Aslam Sasoli, Rizwan Khanzada and other members of the town council were also present on the occasion.
Younus alleged that several mafias with the patronage of CDGK, KPT and Federal Ports and Shipping Ministry were involved in occupying the lands of the fishermen at Hawks Bay located in Kiamari Town particularly in Sandspit Road, Fisheries Goth, Younasabad and other coastal areas of the metropolitan.
While the town nand other town officials have turned blind eyes over the issue, adding that the mafias are also filling the coastal belt and cutting mangroves for the purpose of land grabbing.
He termed such situation as alarming for any disaster like Tsunami in the said areas, as the mangroves are the only sources to protect the City from any such disaster, but the mafias are propelling the entire metropolis toward such threats. He also alleged that a renowned NGO, ‘WWF Pakistan,’ is also involved in the cutting of mangroves, which got funds to protect such mangroves.
Haji Younus, a former president of PPP District West, has said that the coastal belt has been the PPP dominated areas, but the conspiracy has been hatched to abolish such Goths. However, it’s also a conspiracy to abolish the PPP’s vote bank.
Despite of the formation of PPP-led government, no initiative has been taken to stop such conspiracy. The people of the said villages were eyeing the PPP, but now they are losing their hopes regarding any action from the government. He added that the provincial minister Akhtar Jadoon, who was elected by the said coastal belt, as well as Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Nabeel Gabool showed their helplessness to stop such conspiracies.
He also revealed that a strategy has been chalked out to occupy the fisher’s villages by conducting grand operations to deprive them from their decades old land. He expressed his concerns that such actions would create ethnic violence in Kiamari Town which would brace the entire City

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