Dubai-istan

By Fatima Bhutto, The News-6, 18/02/2007

Traversing the roads that lead towards the Bundal and Budoo Islands is a uniquely Karachi experience; that said, you should enjoy it now -- it won't be there much longer. In the village of Ibrahim Hyderi, populated by local fisherfolk for about six hundred years now, there are small bazaars set up by the street side, miniature shrines named for a Sufi saint of the sea, and one room cement stores hawking everything from butchered lamb to pan masala. Soon, Ibrahim Hyderi and its residents will be an eyesore.

Development is happening, progress is underway and these poor Pakistanis will soon to have to move out lest they cramp the style of the big capitalist push afoot.

In all these years the village of Ibrahim Hyderi has yet to be regularised by the Sindh government, the tenants never received deeds or leases to their homes -- imagine their shock when Dubai property construction giants Emaar showed up last year and were given an immediate lease for the Bundal and Budoo Islands.

In a deal negotiated by the federal minister for ports and shipping and the prime minister (a banker, naturally) Emaar will begin a Disney-like adventure on Bundal and Budoo Islands. For the mere price of 43 billion dollars, Bundal and Budoo Islands will be transformed into luxury resorts. There will be hotels, there will be apartment complexes, and in a move apparently insensitive to irony there will even be theme parks. "It will be just like Dubai," gushed Ashfaque Hasan Khan, an aide to Shaukat Aziz, and it will be garishly christened 'Diamond Bar Island'.

Thousands of fisherfolk will not only lose access to the islands, but will also lose their right to fish in the waters surrounding the area. Circumventing the 12,000 acres of land, and the $50 million dollar bridge that will be built connecting Emaar's mega resorts to Defence Phase VIII, will not only be time consuming for the fishermen but effectively impossible. They have been informed that due to security reasons, or more likely aesthetic reasons, their presence will no longer be tolerated in the open waters. "The big men staying at those hotels will need security from the poor" said Majeed Motlani, the Karachi chapter president of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum. Mr Motlani was wearing a black armband on the sleeve of his white shalwar kameez and shook his head as he spoke to me by the Ibrahim Hyderi dock dotted with light blue fishing boats. According to the PFF, more than 200 million people around the world, mainly in developing countries, make their living as fisherfolk. Pakistan is no exception, there are estimated to be around 200,000 fisherfolk in Karachi.

Pakistan's ecosystem will also be devastated by Emaar's 'development'; it is not just the fisherfolk who will be sacrificed for the monstrosity of Diamond Bar Island. In the Pakistani waters of the Arabian Sea there are approximately 300 islands. These islands are populated not by people (only a 20 per cent inhabitancy is recorded) but mainly by mangrove forests. Mangrove forests are made up of trees and shrubs, typically in tropical or sub-tropical areas and tend to thrive in saline waters. They are nursery areas for crustaceans, shellfish, and provide sanctuary for many other living organisms. My brother Zulfikar was especially interested in the environmental damage done to the islands, parts of which have already been bulldozed to remove any signs of nature. The fisherfolk will be affected by the destruction of the mangroves because a sizable amount of shrimp is found in mangrove areas. The rest of us will be affected in far more ominous ways.

As we walked along the islands -- where VIP bathrooms had already been built in anticipation of an Emaar inauguration ceremony -- Zulfikar reminded me of the 2004 tsunami; mangroves act as a barrier between land and sea currents (he is especially conversant in environmental lingo, I had to go home and look up half the things he was talking about). Without them, the casualties of the South East Asian Tsunami would have been in the millions, not thousands. Zulfikar was equally indignant over the fact that by allowing Emaar to rid us of our natural landscape of mangrove forests, Pakistan would be breaking the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, which it is a signatory to, along with 152 other countries. The 1971 treaty binds its signatories to protect and conserve natural wetland areas, recognising their fundamental ecological, economic and scientific value. We have already cheated on Ramsar many times over the years; 55 per cent of our mangrove forests from Hub to Bhambore have already been destroyed and we're acting as if we're on a schedule to wipe out the remaining 45 per cent.

And then, as always, there is the issue of money. Speaking of the $43 billion dollar price tag of islands, Haji Shafi Jamot, a former chairman of the Karachi district council said -- almost smiling: "The fisherfolk were prepared to say 'ok, take the money and use it to pay off Pakistan's foreign debt, we'll sacrifice that for Pakistan'. But the problem is that no one knows where this money will be deposited and how it will be invested". I wanted to add "or with whom?", but Mr Motlani interrupted my silent vitriol and spoke up. "When the land at Gizri Creek (also near Defence) was reclaimed the money from so called "development projects" was divided 30 per cent to the Sindh government and 70 per cent to the Defence Housing Authority". He paused long enough for me to remind you here that the Defence Housing Authority is affiliated with the Pakistani Army. "But no reports have been released informing us -- the fisherfolk -- how this $43 billion dollars will be dealt with. Why is there zero transparency? Why is there always zero transparency?"

It goes without saying that the Sindh government is offering no compensation to the fisherfolk for the loss of their commerce. The government remains mum on the subject, hoping that their association with a super conglomerate such as Emaar will lend some credibility and legitimacy to their whole sale vending of Pakistani soil. Emaar's revenue and net profit for 2006 was upwards of $2 billion dollars, which is surely to be expected from the company named the "best developer in the UAE".

Besides the thirteen-year project that is Diamond Bar Island, Emaar is also teaming up with the haute couture fashion house Giorgio Armani to build ten Armani hotels and resorts worldwide, including locations in New York, Shanghai and Tokyo. If that isn't development, I don't know what is. Bankers' and ministers' hearts alike must be fluttering at the thought of an Armani hotel in Karachi; perhaps it can be built over some razed Katchi Abadis.

Passing through the streets of Ibrahim Hyderi on my way home I saw that the bazaars were winding down after a day of business, children were walking away from the shops and towards their houses, and the open air fish market was arranging fresh seafood caught moments earlier. There was one more thing that caught my eye -- grafitti spray painted on the walls. It was black and it read "Fishermen unite -- Save our islands".