Karachi Mayor has taken back notice over Clifton park, says forester Shahzad Qureshi – Pakistan

The dispute over the urban forest located in Block 5 of Karachi, Clifton ended when Mayor Wasim Akhtar met with the head of the Shahzad Qureshi forest in the park and planted a tree to extend an olive branch.

Akhtar went to the forest site on Thursday and met with Shahzad Qureshi, who had previously adopted the land to develop the park.

"The mayor said he withdrew the notice and that I can continue with my work and that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) will support me," Qureshi said, speaking with Dawn.com.

Akhtar, on the other hand, defended his previous cancellation action of the agreement on the development of the park, saying that Qureshi had violated it with impunity.

"He had to submit a monthly report to KMC where he is getting his financing and how he is using it; but not once did he do it," said the mayor.

"And in the last two years, since he took over, you can barely see the progress he had promised," he added.

"That's because they didn't let me work and made me go round and round in circles: & # 39; go there to get the approved design, go there to get this signed & # 39; … it's been a nightmare, take out this land project, "Qureshi replied.

Qureshi defended himself further and said that, as regards the funds, "my accounts are very transparent. They are audited and online, not just for the mayor to see."

He said that if that were not the case, and if people did not see that it was a good thing for the city, they would not have been able to "convince 9,000 people" to visit and plant trees there. In the last two years, about 15,000 trees have been planted.

Afflicted, Akhtar wished that this could have been handled in a "more civilized manner."

I was upset because Qureshi brought together people who used social networks to create an "exaggeration" and make a mountain from a hill.

Admitting that it was the social networks that helped in his moment of anguish, the forest engineer said that "he had tried all the secondary channels that I could gather, he had even sent a personal message to the mayor's ego, but he did not pay attention."

Things reached a critical point when about two dozen KMC employees entered and began destroying the park. That was when Qureshi became enraged and entered the social networks.

"Frankly, even I am surprised by the power of social networks and how quickly the situation was resolved."

An absent government

"The KMC did not have to uproot the garden and plants without mercy," said Amber Alibhai, general secretary of Shehri-Citizens for a Better Environment (CBE), adding that even if the municipality had developed differences with Qureshi, this did not It was the way forward to penalize him.

"And besides, it was none other than the horticultural department that led the wandering," he said, pointing out the contradiction.

Since 1964, when the Sindh government notified Kehkashan, there were 79 service plots (the adopted park is one of those that had remained in a dilapidated state for years), to develop as recreational spaces, said Shehri spokesman.

"How many have been developed by the KMC?" He asked, adding that "when people want to participate and do good, they find it extremely difficult to continue," referring to Qureshi.

& # 39; Environmental terrorism & # 39;

When qualifying the episode of the park and the uprooting of the plants, nothing less than "environmental terrorism", Rafiul Haq, a member of the Horticultural Society of Pakistan, says he will sleep much better now that the dispute over the park is over.

Haq said that the Qureshi exercise symbolized "the effort of citizens to make this megacity resistant to disaster in the form of a heat wave in 2015."

The best thing is that we don't have to wait years to see the fruits of our work. The Miyawaki model that Qureshi has adopted for its forest "will improve a healthy environment in a short time and contribute to the supply of oxygen to the inhabitants of this concrete jungle," he added.

"Fortunately, the KMC had not yet entered the forest or hacked trees there. Very soon people will think twice before cutting trees and plants anywhere," said Murtaza Wahab, an advisor to the Chief Minister of Climate Change and Environment from Sindh.

Wahab said the Sindh Environmental Protection Authority will soon have its own police force that will take action against those who cause environmental pollution.

"Those who cut down or destroy trees will also be penalized," the Sindh government spokesman told Dawn.com, referring to the episode at the park in Clifton.