KARACHI: Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor on Saturday demanded stern action against growing frauds in land and real estate sector, saying this sector on one hand is giving cover to huge black money and the other it is depriving citizens of their lifetime savings due to widespread frauds.
He said the land mafia and real estate tycoons are a state behind state in the mega city Karachi and they influence police, administration and politicians through massive bribery.
He said the authorities entasked to regulate housing societies and land and building matters in Karachi are filthy corrupt and they don’t take action to stop massive irregularities in their domains. He said in Islamabad recently, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has canceled the licenses of 14 housing societies for failing to register with the district administration, but such actions in Karachi by the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) or Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) are virtually unheard. He said in Karachi not only the departments like KMC, DMCs, KDA, SBCA and Board of Revenue assist the land, real estate and builder mafias but police, anti-corruption department, FIA and other agencies also burn the blind eye to them. He said all major political parties also back these mafias as they heavily fund them secretly.
Altaf Shakoor said there is huge demand in housing sector of Karachi and millions of people want their own houses. This gives a big leverage to these mafias as the KDA has not announced any new housing scheme in Karachi for decades. He said the Hawksbay Scheme 42 of the Lyari Development Authority has been in limbo for decades. The allottees in this Scheme are yet to take possession of their plots even after paying their full dues as development work is not started in many sectors of this big housing scheme. He said in fact the Scheme 42 Hawksbay is a big exploitation for the citizens of Karachi who have spent their lifetime earning to book plots in it.
Altaf Shakoor said acute shortage of housing facilities has helped in spread of slums and shanties in Karachi. He said from Suhrab Goth to Jamali Bridge on M-9 Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway roadside areas are freely encroached upon by private transporters, auto mechanics and shanties dwellers but the National Highway Authority (NHA) and other concerned agencies are not removing these illegal structure due to mega corruption.
He said that in fact whole megacity Karachi is a horrible example of bad governance. He said corrupt officials of the central, local and Sindh governments have made Karachi a heaven of bribery. He said public transport sector in Karachi is in shambles. He said the government has failed to accelerate work on revival of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR), while the much awaited second phase of Green Line RBT from Numaish to Tower is yet to be started as both the central and Sindh governments are not interested in developing Karachi and facilitating its citizens.
He said Karachi needs dozens of new housing schemes for low-income people to mitigate acute housing shortage in the megacity. He said illegal slums should be removed and the genuine affecters should be provided alternate shelters while the land mafia behind illegal slum settlements should be punished as per law. He said action should be taken against irregularities and frauds of private housing schemes in Karachi on war footing basis and a foolproof mechanism should be devised to check land and real estate frauds in the mega city.