Isra Soomro IR

To be checked 

Jan 26, 2021 After due date

Isra Soomro

MMC/2k20   Roll#23

Where did greenery of Qasimabad went?

Qasimabad is located in Hyderabad which is the second largest city of Sindh. Qasimabad was named after Bin Qasim invaded Sindh. If we talk about 10 to 15 years back, Qasimabad was not that much populated and not even that much polluted. Upper side of Qasimabad which is connected to M9 motorway was mostly an agriculture area or river bank, small and tine villages of Soomro community were also located on the edge of the city. In center of Qasimabad there is Wadhu wah which was used for watering lands of cantonment.

These green lands at the both side of the Wadhu wah road, sun ­­rise from east, freshwater released from river Indus for cantonment lands in Wadhu wah use to give an alluring scene. But I have to say it with great regret that, this alluring scene don’t exist anymore.

Both side of Wadhu wah are now converted into housing schemes and huge building due to which sun rise is not visible anymore. Wadhu in converted into great gutter line of Qasimabad, no more freshwater in it because it is in no use of cantonment lands now.

Those agriculture lands were inheritance of Soomro community and they claim those lands were seize or where forcefully purchased on low rates from us due to that we are now live under privilege life with poor background and we have to do small jobs to meet our family needs.

Nafees Soomro a Vegetable merchant in Qasimabad claims his dad was one of the most extravagant man locally, his dad use to possess 120 acer land in Qasimabad yet now he and his sibling is compelled to remain on vegetable truck. He further on revealed to us that “my dad was dependent on play a game of cards, in that addiction he lost everything and today we are enduring and live in a rented house in a similar town where our dad had a particularly enormous name”. There town is known as “Soomra goath”. We went to Soomra goath with that vegetable merchant to inquire that, what he is says is true or not.

There we met an elderly person. As per locals he was proprietor of in excess of 100 acer of land close to their town however his cousins grabbed it from him and sold it to some construction company at a low rates, but now he is forced to beg door to door to meet essentials of life. Further on we met a lady who was claiming to be only child of her parents further on she said “my parents were poor and they sold all their land to a constructor to get me married, but that constructor bought the land from my father at a very low price and when the constructor started plotting on those land, our house was next to it so he also captured it from us. My father was a farmer, after losing his house he spend rest of his life homelessly or on rented house”.

 

We then found that about 89% of the residents were living in poverty, but they claimed that their ancestors owned agriculture land and the area around their village had remained theirs in the past.

The agriculture land they were claiming were none other than agriculture lands located both sides of the Wadhu wah which are now housing schemes and buildings, we had talked about in start. After seeing all these situation we decided to talk to some authorities which are responsible.

First of all we visited HDA office and met Mr. Aamir Bhatti, we told him about complete situations, that how the poverty is reaching to the peek in Soomra goath and how miserable life they are spending, he acknowledge that his department has all data about the situations but they have no powers regarding to the propertied to any area their duties are about the maintenance of roads and areas. To look after the WASA and savage system of the society. They ask us to visit revenue office located at “Thandi Sarak”, according to Mr. Aamir they have the records of all type of properties but before visiting them we decided to visit Town Planning office as we were been informed by some senior person that department is going to be useful for us and as we already had to visit revenue office so the Town Planning is also located on Thandi Sarak.

Town Planning is in Shabbaz building on Thandi sarak but we didn’t get any information regarding to our work, they said “our work is just to create maps for builders, just like where pipeline should be fixed, where road starts from and where it should be end”. They suggested us to meet a renowned estate agent, according to them he would be helpful in proving us details regarding to our issue.

On their suggestion we visited Mr. Shahid Siddique a very famous and renowned estate agent of Hyderabad. According to him “in the past, I was an estate agent who sold most of the lands in Qasimabad but now there have been so many estate agent so I don’t work for Qasimabad anymore”.

But as we were informed that he has contacts with constructors and builders we were sure he would be able to answer are query. So we bluntly talked about the poverty level of life in Soomra Goath and their claims after listening to us calmly he said “as I have worked for so many years in Qasimabad, I have knowledge regarding to issues of Soomra Goath but their claims are slightly wrong, might be their lands has been grabbed by them but constructors and builders are not the one who did this. Maybe any blood relative had done such thing with them”. After listening to him we asked him “how this could be? While they are very sure about their claims”. Then we asked him about their claim of “low rates” no this claim he further on revealed to us that “when land is an agriculture land its rates are less than as compare to that land which are used for plotting, in their case it has been same that when sold it, it was an agriculture land but after converted to housing scheme its rates has been increase so this is the only reason that they believe they are been cheated by constructors and builders. Still if you have any confusion, I know someone in information department who can be useful for you in your inquiry”. He set our meeting with Mr. Riaz Memon in Information department.

We thanks him and move towards meeting Mr. Riaz Memon from information department his office was also in Shabbaz building. We decide to go to revenue office as we were informed before they can provide us some information but after meeting Mr. Riaz Memon our plans and ideas were changed. According to Mr. Riaz Memon “these lands were private property so it is near to be impossible to sell on low rates or be grabbed by any contractor or builders. Private properties are sold on their required rates or the rate of that area”. As we told him we are going to visit revenue office he told us it would useless and waste of time. Further on we asked him can he show us any legal or official documents which can show us that those land were not grabbed by any powerful constructor or builder or were not bought on low rates. In this situation he said “I can’t help you with documentation but if you are looking for documents you have to visit PNDC at civic center and have to meet Mr. Syed Nadem Rizwan director of the department, he may be helpful for you in search of documents”. We thanks Mr. Riaz and moved on to meet Mr. Syed Nadem Rizwan.

This complete investigation was not just of one day it took almost complete month. It was not as we visited someone and they welcomed us open heartedly. We had to wait for them for hours and hours, some of them ask us to come next day or another day but we didn’t let it go. We stayed motivated and worked on our investigation. But till now we are unable to meet Mr. Syed Nadem Rizwan due to some reason or another reason but we haven’t quit the job and still hoping to meet him soon Inshah.Allah