The inclusive resettlement of ML-1 clears the track of living obstacles

This legally kosher rationale is socially disastrous and an abject failure of planning that underlies this project. Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way because we have had a National Resettlement Policy sitting around as a draft since 2002. But we still have no way of acknowledging non-titleholders as legitimate claimants during state-sponsored infrastructure development.

Our research was based on 17 informal settlements identified partially or fully on Pakistan Railways land. We used two scenarios of displacement: Scenario 1, 40ft need to be cleared on both sides of the track and Scenario 2 25ft.

Karachi has six settlements along the axis of ML-1: Ghareebabad-PIDC, Kashmir Mujahid Colony, New Sindh Muslim Colony, Umer Colony, Darvesh Colony, and Moria Khan Goth.

They built not only houses, but their social worlds: schools, mosques, markets, none of which has ever been recognised by the government.

In Hyderabad, five settlements in the corridor were surveyed: Railway Line Colony Qasimabad, Bengali Colony, Phuleli, Pakka Qila, and Syed Ghafoor Shah Colony. Bengali Colony is only 17,000-18,000 persons in about 1,850 units.

In Lahore, the 25ft clearance scenario leads to zero displacement. It indicates that some minor engineering changes could make a difference if prioritised.

But the overall picture is disturbing with a maximum of 15,752 and a minimum of 2,400 people stand to lose their homes in the three cities. A vigorous resettlement plan will be needed for the execution of ML-1.

It’s not just about four walls

People can be resettled elsewhere, and compensated, but capital won’t buy back a lost mohallah. The people we spoke to stated they had lived there a much as half a century in some instances. They have intermarried, the women do paid work in informal childcare networks. The elders sit in on squabbles and fights, weddings and funerals. This is the kind of life that is never documented in feasibility studies. It’s impossible to put a price tag on friendships.

Women pay the deepest price for displacement. Trusted neighbour babysitting and stress-reducing friendships are severed when they have to leave a neighbourhood.

The corridor as political claim

The ML-1 is a flagship project of CPEC to connect trade between Central Asia and the Arabian Sea. The interests that propel it could not be further from those of a mazdoor in Moria Khan Goth. To his credit, the Chief Engineer recognised this complexity: “There is a ‘loss of access and mobility’ for encroachers and a ‘reduction of social spaces for encroachers’ as well as the possibility of ‘loss of existing infrastructure including gas line, electricity, water and sanitation facilities’ if they are fenced off.”

There is admission that ML-1 will bulldoze community courtyards, pathways to schools and mosques, and connections to utility networks under the railway’s plans to fence off the land. This is what corridor urbanism scholars say are dispersed spatial rearrangements. They redraw the social possibility to who has access to what and when.

‘Don’t be anti-development’

No one disputes that the railways need to be upgraded between Karachi and Peshawar. The question is, rather, whether this will be a development that harshens urban inequalities or moves to narrow them?

Fixing the law is doable. Amend the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 so informal occupation over a long period of time, 20 years or more, is recognised when it comes to entitling residents to resettlement without requiring formal title. Pass the draft National Resettlement Policy of 2002 so the bureaucrats and donors who run and fund the project are forced to see the people they are ignoring and listen to and address their grievances before the first bulldozer trundles in.

Can the technical teams gauge whether adjustments to the amount of land to be cleared could reduce the need for displacement. In Lahore, for example, a 15-foot difference makes no difference in how many residents will need to move.

Finally, the people need to be part of this process, included as actors and objects of administrative management. Many of them stated they did not reject the ML-1 and would cooperate if given useful information, proper notice, adequate compensation at market value and resettlement within a reasonable distance. This is hardly unreasonable.

If Pakistan’s dreams are to have a meaning beyond steel and cement, they must be accompanied by a politics of recognition. The track needs to be improved, however, the residents who have developed around it should not have to pay for progress to which they were not invited.

Header image: The strip between the railway track and residential façades serves as the sole access route and utility corridor in Darwesh Colony, Karachi. Source: Karachi Urban Lab (KUL).

Note: All photographs in the artcile are provided by the author.