Cities can't be planned by inept and unimaginative bureaucrats, neither can they be built with bricks and mortar alone. What they need is creative and inclusive development policies
For their expansionist activities, the transnational companies want infrastructure development, in the third world countries, of the kind that serves their own vested interests. Local business and small traders are the ultimate victims of this grand capitalist plan. The same is happening in the Southern Punjab where this kind of development has become a matter of debate.
A case in point is the expansion of Bosan Road in the heart of Multan (the biggest city of this neglected region) where thousands of small traders, from street vendors to big grocery store owners (including owners of chicken shops, vegetable/fruit shops, electric shops, dry cleaners, hardware stores, barbers, medical stores, motorcycle mechanics, mobile phone shops, computer composers, stationary stores, photocopiers, internet club owners etc), have been deprived of their livelihoods without any compensation from the state.
The People's Government, headed by Mr Zardari, has compensated the landowners/lessors on both sides of the road by paying them money that was determined in the light of the prevailing market prices of the land situated at Bosan Road. But the fact that most of the affected were not owners/lessors but lessees who were running their businesses for decades was totally ignored.
The irony is that these same traders who worked hard, day in and day out, and whose hard work made this road so much more valuable in terms of commercial viability have been deprived of the fruit whose seeds they sowed so diligently.
Hence, most of the small traders whom I met there are still moaning and groaning that their plight has been totally ignored in spite of fact that they are the real victims of this developmental terrorism. It was pointed out by some of those affected during my visit to the Road (where I interviewed many of the displaced lessees) that lessors have got compensation money and the government has acquired land for a road widening project (from Chungi No. 9 to Bahauddin Zikriya University a total of 6 k.m) but what have the poor traders who were doing business in the rented shops or space got?
Some have been doing business there for decades and after their business was established and they had stared earning reasonable income, suddenly they were displaced and their business ruined. According to an estimate of Mr. Bashir Mughal (a Caltex petrol pump owner at Chungi No. 6 and representative of small traders of Bosan Road) the number of those affected is, at least, between 400-500 shopkeepers. In this, roadside vendors, salesmen, and other daily wagearners are not included. A thousand or so families have been affected and deprived of their livelihoods.
Another important problem is that the owners/lessors after receiving the hefty compensation monies have started building new plazas, and rents have also been tripled. An electric shop owner (Mr. Aashiq Awan) told me that previously he was paying rupees 6000 rent and now the same size shop is available at rupees 15000 rent and if the shop has been renovated with glass and marble fittings then rent has gone as high as rupees 20,000.Three negative factors have harmed their business simultaneously; displacement, three times increase in rent, and a sudden fall in the daily sales of up to approximately 75%.
Mr. Akram Naqshbandi, a grocery store owner was of the view that as the lessors and lessees had conflict of interests, they could not get united for long. Lessors used lessees for their own selfish motive and after the lessors got their demands met by the authorities, lessees were left in the lurch.
Ishtiaq, a supporter of a family of five, who is a motorcycle puncture mender and a very poor labourer, is one of the worst victims of this project. He was also kicked out from his rented shop and has suffered a lot since then. He shifted his business to another locality called Hafiz Jamal Road, but business did d not pick up there even after four months and he has again returned to Bosan Road. However, his regular customers have disappeared meanwhile. He also seems as helpless as other poor victims who have no recourse to turn to, except their faith that the bad times will soon be over.
Some shop have moved into inside lanes and streets of the adjacent colonies of Zikriya Town, Shalimar, and Sabzazar etc. (where some residents have also started building shops in the front portion of their houses, keeping in mind the demand) with the result that the approach roads to these residential colonies (barely 30 feet wide) have also become commercialized and rents have been increased as well. Everyone is cashing in on the situation. Consequently, the peaceful environment of residential areas that was already very fragile has been disturbed too, adding to the miseries of residents who are already facing the problems of sewerage and traffic congestion because there is a lot of vehicular movement in these un-planned residential societies.
And as the road expansion work has assumed a very slow pace (especially after the departure of Mr. Gillani from the P.M.’s house more than four months ago), because only a 2 km piece of road has been widened in more than two years, there is chaos, disorder and uncertainty everywhere on the road. Ordinary citizens are also perplexed as piles of crushed stones, sand and other building material is still placed at scattered places on both sides of the road and not a single manhole on the footpaths of both sides of constructed road (there are, at least, five dozen) has yet been covered with a lid.
As the infrastructure development projects are planned and implemented according to market economy demands, the result is that vested interests gain politically as well as economically while small traders and other oppressed classes, including common citizens, get crushed under the debris of the consequent chaos, disorder, and distorted/skewed development, commented Mr. Asad Pitafi and Imran Saleem Hashmi, PPP sympathizers and progressive ideologues.
Some shopkeepers were, however, all praise for former prime minister, Yusuf Raza Gillani, as according to them he had done a great favour to citizens of Multan by initiating such kind of infrastructure development projects. But what they fail to understand is the fact that all these projects are actually planned to make room for capitalist powers i.e big transnational companies who want to have access to the raw material, domestic markets, and cheap labour of developing countries (Pizza Hut, Hardees, Borjan, and other global brand names have already made their strongholds in the vicinity of Bosan Road) and will ultimately devour big local business too after the disappearance of small traders.
Cities can't be planned by inept and unimaginative bureaucrats, neither can they be built with bricks and mortar alone. What they need is creative and inclusive development policies. Cities should be places of inspiration where humans come together to increase their productivity and enrich their experience. It is not without good reason that, throughout recorded history, cities have been associated with civilization and culture.
| The writer is a freelance journalist and professional translator |
