Page 30 - Pakistan Link - February 1, 2019

P30 – PAKISTAN LINK – FEBRUARY 1, 2019 PAKISTAN
Karachi Seeks to Remake Itself, with Bulldozers Leading the Way

Empress Market in Karachi where shops were bulldozed in November Some shops at Empress Market were still open for business

Naeem Qureshi, 90, whose meat shop was demolished. Displaced stall owners have been protesting the government’s actions - Photos by Saiyna Bashir for The New York Times

n By Meher Ahmad need gardens, trees, public areas, and trades that have been wiped images of a gutted Empress Market selves. Mr Akhtar said that the city
Karachi benches,” Mr Akhtar said in an in- out elsewhere,” said Arif Hasan, a interior circulating on social me- was trying to find the money to
terview. “The era of the concrete historian and an architect who has dia. Commuters paused to gawk clean up the mess, “at least on its
or three generations, Mu- jungle has gone on for too long in chronicled Karachi’s urbanization and take photos of the newly bared face,” but that he would continue to
hammad Rizwan’s family saw Karachi.” for decades. “The bird market, the building, whose walls could not be follow the Supreme Court order.
Ftheir tiny market stall as their Plans to catapult Karachi — bookbinders market, the dry fruit seen from the street for more than Mr Toheed said the people af-
second home, the sons growing up known for its chronic instability, market, all stalls that have existed 50 years. fected were almost all from the
there helping with the stock while ethnic violence and crumbling in- for well over 50 years.” Some were pleased: “Who working class.
their fathers dealt with customers. frastructure — into modernity be- The stalls came crashing down knew such a nice building was be- “They barely make ends meet
Mr Rizwan, 35, started sell- gan with mass demolitions at the in November, when city bulldozers hind all that,” said Muhammad Asif, as it is,” he said. “They can’t af-
ing shoes and clothing there as a beating heart of the city’s commer- razed them overnight. After being a dishwasher who brought his wife ford rent in other parts of Karachi,”
teenager and had hoped to pass the cial activity: Empress Market. notified of the demolition plans a on motorcycle to show her the state where rent has become unaffordable
business down to his son. Today The market, which was built week or so beforehand, the hawkers, of the market. for even well-to-do families.
it is a pile of rubble, the result of a in the 1880s during British colonial in protest, refused to leave and dem- But on social media and the Mr Toheed and others are
government bulldozing operation rule, is made up of a square court- onstrated right up until their stalls local news, the demolition elicited scrambling to keep up with the bull-
that began around Karachi’s famous yard enclosed by four covered halls were knocked down. outrage. dozers as they threaten new demo-
Empress Market and now stretches and a clock tower. Historians say “It was like a nightmare,” said “Went for a walk around the litions each week. One of the city’s
across the city. the market stands on the site where Abdul Rashid Kakar, the owner of a ‘new downtown,’” Talat Aslam, a oldest bookselling markets could be
“My grandfather was the first to dozens of South Asian soldiers were tea stall. “I saw the place where I’ve senior editor at a local newspaper, next.
work in this market — he sold rope executed in 1857 during a failed up- worked the majority of my life dis- wrote on Twitter, mocking Prime “Of course cities change and
back then — and now it seems like rising against the British. appear right in front of me.” Minister Imran Khan’s “New Paki- there is encroachment all over the
I’ll be the last,” Mr Rizwan said. The market was named af- Legal stalls inside the building stan” slogan. “Empress Market city,” Mr Toheed said. “But the pub-
The unofficial tent stalls that ter Queen Victoria, who was then were demolished as well, with the looked soulless, forlorn and for- lic and civil society need to know the
had long surrounded Empress Mar- the empress of India, to deter local government citing planned reno- saken.” big picture so we can plan accord-
ket are among the many sites tar- residents from building a memorial vations. Mr Kakar, Mr Rizwan and Even Mr Aslam, though, ac- ingly. Right now, we find out just
geted by the Karachi government’s there for the executed rebels. hundreds of other displaced stall knowledged that the building itself days before demolition, and then
“anti-encroachment” campaign Over the next century, Em- owners, some of whom also lived was nice. another one begins.”
against commerce that spills into the press Market became the center of in their shops, have been protesting That was before the city’s bull- In the meantime, Empress
city’s streets and parks. Hawkers and a bustling commercial area where ever since. dozers turned their attention to Market’s barren face has put resi-
informal structures have become an the majority of the city’s profession- “We have mouths to feed,” Mr markets and settlements across Ka- dents in a solemn mood.
entrenched part of life in Karachi als commuted daily. An informal Rizwan said. “I’m ashamed to go rachi. “We’ve lost our history,” said
in the decades since it transformed tent market gradually appeared on home because I have nothing to give Muhammad Toheed, an urban Mr Hasan, who over the years has
from a quaint port village into one its periphery, with hawkers selling to my family.” planning researcher at the Institute proposed several plans to revitalize
of the biggest cities in the world, products as varied as spices and rare In spite of the demolition, some of Business Administration, has Karachi’s downtown while main-
with a population of at least 15 mil- birds. hawkers have resumed selling their been following the anti-encroach- taining its street culture. He said the
lion. Even as skyscrapers and mod- wares in the rubble where their ment drive since it began in Novem- authorities “have no concept of his-
They have also contributed to ern shopping malls sprang up around shops used to be. ber. He estimated that 11,000 shops tory and continuity. They are devoid
Karachi’s reputation as one of the it, Empress Market remained more The city government says that and stalls across some 20 markets of humanity.”
world’s least livable cities. Waseem or less the same, drawing shoppers all stall owners with official rental had been affected, upending life for Mr Akhtar said the demolitions
Akhtar, Karachi’s mayor of two of all income levels from all over the agreements will eventually be re- tens of thousands of families. Many were a sign that Karachi was finally
years, is bent on changing that by city. It survived some of Karachi’s housed. As for the others, “we can’t of them continue to protest in front returning to its former glory.
demolishing what he says are un- most violent eras, including the fre- accommodate encroachers,” Mr of the city’s Press Club. “Spices and lentils, parrots and
licensed businesses that have been quent militant attacks of the last two Akhtar said. “They were sitting there In their wake, the bulldozers pigeons — that isn’t heritage,” he
operating on public property, in decades and the military crackdown illegally. We are following the letter have left piles of rubble and con- said. “We need to have something
some cases for decades. He is backed on gangs and terrorist organizations of the law.” fused residents who say they have to show for our next generation. I
by an order from Pakistan’s Supreme that began in 2013. Residents were shocked when no choice but to clean up the broken think we’re moving toward prog-
Court.“We need open places. We “Inside, you could find crafts they woke up on Nov. 11 to find concrete and twisted metal them- ress.” – The New York Times
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