Thursday, October 14, 2010

CUL-DE-SAC .. KU Vs LAND MAFIA ..




By Maham Tanveer



CUL-DE-SAC .. KU Vs LAND MAFIA ..

The University of Karachi was established as Federal University through parliament in 1951 under act of 23rd October 1950, later through another act of parliament in 1962, the status was redefined as University of Province of Sindh. At the time of establishment the land provided to university was 1279 acres. Prof. A.B.A Haleem was the first VC whereas 50 students filled the seats in very first year. Now the university holds above 28000 students with 53 departments and 20 world class and highly reputable Research Centers and Institutes. In initial years the university was housed in small buildings near Civil Hospital. On 18th January 1960 it was shifted to new (Country Club Road) and present (University Road) campus.

KU and land mafia are very old accompanists. The “basti” sort of community living opposite to the main Silver Jubilee Gate is not actually a mafia group, but they are fighting a mafia war for that land with I don’t know whom, because they have easily encroached KU land and there is no one to detain them. VCs make statements with time to time about doing this and that for land, but I feel those narrations more towards making news or just filler because no action has been taken since.

KARACHI - The land mafia has grabbed the precious land of the Karachi University (KU) and started construction work at the premises of the university illegally, The Nation has learnt.

The land mafia has grabbed the costly land in front of KU Silver Jubilee Gate in broad daylight but the university administration is playing the role of silent spectator, which shows the involvement of the big fish in this crime. KU Engineering department has shown criminal negligence towards the issue and providing support to mafia by conducting fake survey of the KU land.
The fake survey has encouraged the mafia to do so, a well-placed source in the KU administration told The Nation on Wednesday. He said that land mafia had grabbed the precious land of the university with out any fear due to the support of the KU State Department and Engineering Department.”



The same type was the case of “Ali Garden” which was built illegally at 500 sq. yards in front of university. The University requests that the plot situated in SB 03 Block 1/A Scheme no. 36 Gulistan-e-Johar should be considered illegal because University is the legal owner of this land.

(ref: http://www.onepakistan.com/news/education/20686-Karachi-University-begins-efforts-take-back-encroached-land.html)


When I came to know about the “basti” community that a department of Urdu and Islamic Learning or something was to be constructed there and due to insufficient funds, it was not formed and “basti” established there, I became curious to know not actually about the views and comments of KU administration but about the life of those “basti” people. I went there with my friend. A man, being very supportive, provided maximum of the information-thanks to him. According to him, the basti is situated since 22 years. Basic facilities of electricity, gas and clean water are not available. Basti comprises around 300 huts with 8 to 10 people in every hut. According to them, the land where bus stop is established, belongs to KU, whereas the land where garbage sort of store is formed belongs to Sui Gas and basti land belongs to Water Board. A school was established where students of KU taught amounting 200 fee per student 3 years back, now the school is not working.

Majority works, only some beg for earning. Their women work in houses , men sell balloons, flowers, lemonades or other soft drinks, some are painters, some conduct business of recyclable metals. Majority is Punjabi, Siraiki and Hindu. They keep animals and the total of land is 5 to 6 acres.


Answering to my question that if you earn 150 to 250 PKR daily (as they told) then how this man (standing nearby) Is affording a mobile phone and that girl is eating Cornetto, they blazed in anger and said “ghareeb ka dil nahin hota hai kia?”

My another question, which was not satisfied, was that I have heard that you people are mostly involved in intoxication and criminal activities, they said that actually we are not those, we are just disreputable. In fact we pay 50 rupees/house to a dominant party as “bhatta”.


Government has demolished their houses several times and they have re-settled their basti after 2-3 days every time. It was miserable when they begged us to do something for them but apart of all acts of humanity, I believe in law and accept it as prior of all deeds and acts.


They have not only grabbed KU land but such people may also be harmful to KU students, they may supply toxic stuff or conduct criminal acts of mobile snatching etc, may be they already do! The locality matters!!

27 comments:

  1. gr8 work.n students of KU shud do smthng

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  2. Adorable ..
    I appreciate your effort !! And yes you are right Maham ..they r involved in criminal activities , my patho teacher told (she conducted study too)especially females are involved in prostitution..males are drug abusers !
    so its very important reality about the land mafia .which should be brought to light !!
    AND you did it !!!i want 2 ask you ,what made you feel to write on this topic ??

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  3. thnx anonymous and rabia..we r continuously disturbed by those bacha faqeers and they touch our bags, at least m always scared of loosing my fone or some paise, any of them could be criminal..i wanted to knw abt that basti cuz to some extent i was sure dat it is illegally occupied land..n when my senior told me dat a department was to be constructed, my curiosity aroused :)

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  4. pictures anth ayyi hain yaar :)
    chalo kaam ki b tareef kardeti hun :P
    gud work :)

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  5. first of all i appreciate your work but i will take the side of "BASTI WALLA'S" Because Karachi is known as mini Pakistan and every nation has a right to earn their living specially poor in this mega city. as u have quoted that the women of this basti used to work in houses and men sailing the small products so they are hard worker enough. but black sheep present in every part of life so cant blame them.

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  6. Mahi good work seriously.. but i have to something to say after reading ur article thourly i wanna say something to the KRAZYMAN. he is v kind to poor but v worst to da students ov KU he has no idea bout da problem facin da student through "Basti Wala" they become the nightmare for da student of KU specially girlz they r low profile denizen of karachi and have no sense how to treat wid da citizen. They r juss afghan refugees in a surrounding of KU as they r in Pakistan.

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  7. @ memon saheb: i am very kind to the mankind i am not kind to poor and don't even worst for the student because i am also a student the basic needs of life is rooti kapra and makan now a days, education is also very precious for life but the above things are more than education. without education one can survive but without these things you cannot. education and information are two different things you have to be well informed not well educated.

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  8. for krazyman..... yew r wonderin from the subject bro here we come to talk bout da problemz of KU not da Pakistan homie. so man the KU is facin some irresistable problemz due to dese i will say them refugees they've capture da land KU illicitly so actually they r involving into da drugs dealings and cell ph's snatching in da surrounding of KU and as well grabbing da land of da department of Urdu and Islamic studies. And they've grab bout 5 to 6 acers bro wat r ya sayin.

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  9. @ memon saheb: i feel very regret to say that you are a very selfish and self centered person you always think about your society not for the yokel.

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  10. for krazyman: bro em not a selfish person ba i've to save ma varsity from these yokels. peace homie

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  11. aaala research work done...not long when link of your article will be used in dawn magzine :-)...though based on truth,for what u have written against them they have every right to snatch your mobile now lol

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  12. dear memon saheb: i have respect for every institute because this is the place where we discover our selves its a very grieved issue between the KU officials and BASTI WALA'S some where corruption is involved in this matter but we both are students we can do only pray for them.. in the last i have to praise the Aurthur on a such remarkable issue.

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  13. for krazyman..... i cavass yew on yewr last thought boi i also 've the sympathy for da BASTI WALA specially on da cite of a small girl havin cornatto and say gloomily " kia gareeb k pass dil nahi huta kia " i also do pray for them. May Allah bless all Muslims and I want to praise the adorable remarkable nonparallel efforts of Maham on a real issue i can only say one thing in ma net shell truly "Reality is bit complex".
    peace fellowz em out.

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  14. bilal bhai n salman@ u both r right at ur own...n obviously i wll support salman (chemistry :P) but bilal bhai i didnt identify every point here..if i did so, d blog will become too heavy to digest ...all point prove those ppl harmful :)

    asad bhai@ thnku yar :D hope jaldy ho jaye aisa but mobile wali bat na karo...dil ko hath parta hai :p

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  15. What should i say ? ..... actually im trying to stop thinking abt these matters bcz it hurts .Day by day every institution of PAKISTAN is becoming a mafia . may ALLAH bless PAKISTAN as always.

    Good job but be careful.

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  16. Ibn-e-Muhammed Bin Hassan KhanOctober 17, 2010 at 2:12 AM

    salman these are not totaly afghan refugees who told you i have been part of ku since 2 years i had faced them they are not only afghan refuges u know most of them are not afghan refuges they are local beggars who hav been contoled by local "mafia" who bring them in eid days to tariq road and ohters shooping mall u hav to have enough knowlede before sayinbg anything........! and if afghan's are coming in pakistan,so this is the consequence of afhganistan war,which is incepted by PAK assisstance to US. if pakistan had not assissted US , how could have they produced these situation in afghanistan.
    So firsly they are all not afghan refuges,second if they were(which is not truth),so it is gulilty of our privious government
    thanks.!

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  17. hafsa@ ameen sum ameen :)

    Ibn-e-Muhammad@ firstly u hv got such an adorable name :)
    yes they all r not afghan refugees but some of them may be, u never know..but most r local mafia conductors..

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  18. maham report was good,but somewhere i think k you were little rash about those people,it was my perception,but never the less nice work...

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  19. good job , young journalist !
    why dont you pic up the case and do some more investigation , i have heared that the shalimar flats at muskan are also built on KU land and IBA also grabs a lot of our land for their parking etc...
    keep it up :)
    Ahsan Raza Firdousi

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  20. Ibn-e-Muhammed Bin Hassan KhanOctober 18, 2010 at 8:36 AM

    @maham
    JZAKALLAH u like my name,well it's my quniat.
    Secondly,JZAKALLAH you agreed with my point that they all are not refuges....
    You know the real problem of this cosmopolitan city is its political situations.Each and everyday fate of this city changes by the political players of it.The problem you mentioned and worked on is not a minor problem.It has been created by major political players coz of there own intrests.So untill and unless they d'nt want to resolve this problem, this problem including various problems like terrorrism,poverty, equal standard of education,free and fair elections can not be solve of this city particularly.YEAH if army were not corrupt,it would solve above mentoned problems....May ALLAH solve our problems.AMEEN

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  21. good analytical sense, and i must appreciate the theme you took on.keep it up.
    Aisha Khalid

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  22. good work maham...we also did survey on them last year and also took some pictures, u know what? they were continuously asking us not to take the pictures of basti...but we still did it...lolzz...they have also given us the same answers which u have mentioned above....the thing is that they are not willing to bring change in their lives, they just want others to do things for them just like parasites...they are happy with their living n dont wanna work hard to change their living standards.
    keep it up n i appreciate u for this:)

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  23. umer@ thnx dear.. i hv skipped many facts, or u ppl would hv become more harsh than me :)

    ahsan bhai@ thnku so much, i wll b writing on these topics very soon InshAllah..n thnx for guidance too :)

    Ibn-e-Muhammad@ u r very true in ur words..ameen sum ameen :)

    aisha@ thnku :)

    nauwerah@ exactly yar i felt d same thing..they were continuously begging us to do something for them but i clearly said dat no one does anything for others, it is u who can bring change..n i havnt mentioned many things, their rude behaviors, badtameezian, a man bzy wid "chars" in front of us n much more..i wll tell u :p

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  24. nice work maham.but isn't it dangerous to write this much openly? your article depicts your efforts.great work seriously!

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  25. awesome work maham..i can see progress from your very first article till now .keep it up :)

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  26. nice work maham but as we were discussing it k isnt it more like a bandwagon dat we all r following law, though knowing dat law needs changes to be one in it, our constitution is able to fill half glass only..

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  27. thnx everyone..
    shafaq@ i dnt feel it dangerous..m just playing my part :)

    zimmi@ i think at dis stage we shud perform our duties first n then talk abt d changes..though our constituion has given relief to president dat he is not accountable for his deeds but still i say dat first gain d position where u can bring changes into law..

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