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Far from
home post-conflict Moved by tragedy opportunity The dream stuff By Zulfiqar Shah Usman, 50, and dozens of other residents of Hassan Olya village on the bank of the Lyari river in Karachi are soon to lose their homes to what the government considers one of the biggest development projects in the city. Their modest houses are the last obstacle in the way of the under-construction Lyari Expressway.
Editorial Dream of an ideal world we may but we all like to return to a place called home. So what about the tens of millions who cannot afford the luxury because they are permanently displaced from the homes they once had. The circumstances that forced them to leave may vary. Actually 'forced' is the right word since displacement is hardly ever voluntary. The force element is rather visible in migrations resulting from conflict or war, natural disaster or development (also known to some as man-made disaster). But what of the huge displacement for economic reasons? That too is per force. All international migrants, if lumped together, may form the sixth populous country in the world, we are told. But who wants to live in that country, if I may ask? The Special Report today attempts to answer many of the following questions. People may have been displaced but how do they cope with it? Could it have been prevented in some cases and the effects mitigated somehow? If refugees will always be there, how about a more humane way of dealing with those around us. While the refugees, migrants or the displaced look all around in search of an identity, together they have already carved one.
Displaced systematically Thanks to the machinations of the imperialist bloc as well as the global arms industry's unending appetite for violence, there is no shortage of conflict zones -- and tens of millions of displaced people as a consequence By Aasim Sajjad Akhtar The discourse of liberal internationalism that has been
championed by the United States and to a lesser extent, Europe, since the end
of World War II is now arguably facing the biggest challenge to its
legitimacy than at any other time over the past 60 years. Since the Bush
administration announced its plans to go to war in Iraq, there has been an
outpouring of dissent in the belly of the beast itself; literally millions of
ordinary people in North America and Western Europe have expressed their
moral indignation at the war and the demand for American troops (and their
'coalition of the willing' lackeys) to leave Iraq (and Afghanistan) has grown
stronger and stronger over time. Arguably the situation in the advanced capitalist countries is yet to reach crisis-like proportions, but there is no doubt that among young people in particular, there is nothing like the kind of blank slate being given to the government that the cold war generations did on account of the deep state-society consensus over the threat of communism. For all the efforts of the reactionary governments in power in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and other western countries, the threat of terrorism, or even radical Islam has not been internalised by the people in the way that the Bushs, Blairs and Howards of the world would have hoped. This important development within the capitalist countries
has been accompanied by the eruption of resistance to the American imperial
project in all of the major theatres of conflict around the world including
Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Lebanon and in the form of a more systematic
political movement in Latin America. The current period then is of critical
importance given that only 15 years ago the ideologues of American
imperialism were triumphantly claiming that the major ideological challenge
to liberal capitalism had been defeated and the reign of the 'free world' was
now guaranteed. Yet the global regime that has been fashioned by the western world since the formation of the League of Nations (the precursor of the United Nations) on the initiative of American president Woodrow Wilson after WWI remains largely intact and in spite of its obvious failings, continues to enjoy at least some legitimacy in the eyes of people around the world. This is primarily because the UN and other such global institutions are the major protagonists of the increasingly suspect language of human rights, development and the like. However, it can easily be argued that the existence of the global governance institutions is actually central to the liberal imperial project and that rather than expose and challenge the aggression of the US and its allies, the practice and discourse of these institutions provides a much needed source of support. Perhaps the most obvious example of this complicity is the so-called 'post-conflict' situation. All around the world, the UN and other international organisations are involved in relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction work in 'post-conflict' zones. Thanks to the machinations of the imperialist bloc and pliant elites in the periphery, as well as the global arms industry's unending appetite for violence, there is no shortage of conflict zones around the world. Accordingly there are plenty of opportunities for international institutions (and their more localised donor-supported offshoots) to ply their 'post-conflict' trade. Yet, and not at all surprisingly, there are tens of millions of permanently displaced people around the world who remain politically voiceless, socially stigmatised, and on the economic margins. The most glaring examples of the utter futility of the huge industry that is international development include the Palestinian refugee population that has been left to rot in fragments across the Arab world for the last six decades, the Afghan population in Pakistan since the early 1980s, and the countless populations that are displaced on account of internecine conflict that has ravaged post-colonial Africa since the arbitrary creation of nation-states from the late 1950s onwards. In all of these cases, and the many others like them, there is a quite deliberate, albeit often sheepish, refusal to openly acknowledge the nature and perpetrators of the conflict. It is no surprise that this translates into total helplessness as far as genuine resolution is concerned. Actually conflict itself is a word that becomes stripped of all meaning given that most such displaced populations are direct victims of systematic political strategies of states, entire blocs of countries, or even non-state actors. Given the sheer depravity of the 'response' of international aid agencies, populations displaced due to wars and genocide are amongst the most excluded and deprived groups that one comes across in a world with no lack of examples of deprivation and exclusion. Perhaps most importantly, such populations are no longer on most people's radar screen primarily because the corporate media has already moved on to the next big sensational news item. So for example, the destruction visited upon Lebanon during the Israeli bombing was widely discussed and condemned, but after the heroic victory of the resistance, the plight of the Lebanese people as they try and rebuild after another episode of mind-numbing violence has become an afterthought. If anyone has an ongoing association with the victims of organised violence it is the population that hosts those who have been displaced. In many cases there is extreme disregard and even outright hostility amongst the host population, either because of basic ethnic/religious/other difference, or because the refugees are considered responsible for all social ills which may or may not have anything to do with them. This stigma necessarily exacerbates the psychological scars which are arguably never shed by those who have been violated, even if all other tangible aspects of their lives return to normal. Of course it is rarely the case that things ever truly go back to the way they were. As the Palestinian example proves, systematic displacement very rarely culminates in a restoration of the original arrangement. The nature and very meaning of life change forever, and bitterness and a perennial yearning for revenge are quite common. The impact on the generation that grows up knowing nothing except violence, living as a stranger in a hostile land, and the overwhelming feeling of subjugation is acute. In general this is not unlike the colonial condition. But in many ways it is much worse, because the colonial encounter ended in widespread rebellion and condemnation at a global level. However, in the current age of empire, colonial violence is called 'conflict' and resisting such violence is called 'terrorism' which leaves international institutions to earn their money helping 'resolve post-conflict' situations. The victims of organised violence are oppressed and violated, and it is sheer intellectual and moral dishonesty to describe them as anything different. But the language and politics of resistance and revolt is simply not suitable to the conferences on conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction. There is no language other than that of the oppressed that can capture the realities of organised violence yet the discourse of human rights and development is considered sufficient to do so. There is therefore a long way to go for the global configuration of power to face a genuine challenge. So long as 'post-conflict' zones continue to be understood in the way they currently are, more and more such zones will come into being amidst the hollow calls for the 'international community' to help.
Little is left in lives of those displaced by the quake that shook the country on October 8, 2005 By Zofeen T. Ebrahim When Mohammad Riaz says "those carefree days of
happiness and contentment are forever gone," he is echoing the feelings
of all those survivors of the October 8, 2005 earthquake, trying to come to
terms with what happened that fateful day. Measuring 7.6 on the Richter Scale, the temblor ripped through nine districts of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Pakistan-administered Kashmir valley, claiming over 73,000 lives, severely wounding 70,000 people and leaving over 3.5 million people homeless. "The insecurity of having no money, of living in makeshift homes, the loss of loved ones whom we never had time to fully grieve, the depression that refuses to die and gnaws at us..." is how Riaz describes the predicament the community of Meira, in Union Council Boi, in Abbotabad district, to which he belongs too, finds itself in, a year since. Then there are people like Shumaila, a graduate, who was running a computer centre in Muzaffarabad before the quake. She says the quake took her a few decades back, all the way to the times of her grandmother. "The time when they relieved themselves in nearby bushes instead of using modern flush toilets." Now like so many others at the camp, she too, waits till sunset or before sunrise to relieve herself in the bushes as she refuses to use the filthy camp toilets. Used to hot and cold piped water, a modern kitchen with all the amenities, not only was she forced to live like a refugee in her own hometown, but was reduced to living in a ghetto-like atmosphere in a tented village on a hilly tract with scores of quake survivors. "Instead of gas stoves we burn wood which we go and collect and like the olden times fetch water from a distant spring. As for garbage, we just burn it here, next to our tent as there is no system of waste collection." For many like young Samina, the journey towards a final closure seems distant still. A young widow, she got married a second time. Not allowed to live on her terms, as a single mother, she was coerced into marriage by her mother. Samina's two brothers-in-law had threatened to kidnap her and one of whom, she says, old enough to be her father, had demanded her hand in marriage. In desperation, her mother married her off to somebody else. "It's better for her to get married. She will be safer," says Sakina Begum, her mother. "They are nice people and have accepted Samina as well as her year-old daughter." Today, Samina with her daughter is adjusting to her new family and surroundings. "October 8 changed my life so completely, I am still struggling with it. How can I forget my late husband whom I loved so much, and my one and a half years old daughter both of whom were buried alive when our house caved in?" For Sakina Begum, fortunes seem to have reversed. Never having worked a day in her life, she now works as a domestic help living in the camp for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Muzaffarabad. "Nothing seems right. My daughter became a widow, we lost our granddaughter and my second daughter who got married three months ago is having marital problems. Her husband says he was compelled to marry her because of the circumstances. The youngest daughter has been unable to study for the past one year." These stories are a stark reminder of how natural and even man-made calamities have an inordinate impact on people, especially the women. "The government's policies and the compensation packages are quite gender-blind. There was a chance for greater involvement of women, of a real opportunity to change traditional power relations, but we seem to have missed that," says Rashida Dohad, programme advisor with the Omar Asghar Khan Foundation, a non-government organisation (NGO) that has been working with rural communities in the Mansehra division of the NWFP. However, she concedes that since the quake women have become more visible even if the fears and aspirations remain largely unattended. To Dohad's mind displacement is not a major factor that has affected the quake survivors. With rural society more integrated and cohesive, she says, many victims were absorbed by their relatives far and near. This is endorsed by Jiwan Das, Emergency Programme Manager with the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), based in Mansehra. The relief agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales raises funds from the Catholic community to respond to such emergencies. "In my view displacement at the maximum was a mere five per cent. The rest took refuge with relatives." Having worked in Sri Lanka during the 2004 Tsunami, he can compare well the two catastrophes and says not many parallels can be drawn due to differences in geography, topography, climatic conditions and cultural norms. Das explains: "For fear of losing their land and their assets, though buried in rubble, many refused to move, especially the poor. They dug up the remains, found tents and made transitional shelters. The slightly well-off came down from the mountains and hills and moved to the plains. Some even went all the way down to Karachi if they had that safety net to be absorbed. But it was the ones who were forced to stay in camps who were the worst displaced." This winter, Cafod has provided 700 one-room shelters made purely of traditional material to the extremely vulnerable families and 300 more will be provided in the coming week. Unlike Sri Lanka, there are many cultural restrictions and pressures that increased the stress level of the survivors. "These people underwent a cycle of stresses," says Dohad. More than displacement, she says it is the various overwhelming stresses -- mental, emotional and physical anguish -- that these people have been warding off for over a year now, that need to be addressed. Having barely survived the catastrophic earthquake, just when they began packing up to go home, was the onslaught of a brutal monsoon that annihilated what was left of their abode and they came scuttling back to camps. The mudslides caused by the torrential rains and flash floods were so severe that it was like a second wave of disaster. "Living in unfamiliar surroundings and adjusting to living in restricted spaces in tents with little privacy or protection and a lack of adequate sanitation was not easy nor was coming to terms with the fears -- men having to adjust to the idea of their womenfolk in close proximity with strange men roaming about freely near their temporary shelters, of them going to public toilets in the night, of their children playing in strange surroundings, of interacting with foreigners unfamiliar with their language -- which were all too real," elaborates Das. Even now, he says, most beneficiaries say that one-room abodes are inadequate. "They bring out their families and ask us how can between five to seven family members live in such a small space. For women it's all the more difficult as purdah and privacy are cited as major issues. Lack of toilet facility is surfacing as another problem. Asked if dependency on aid is a major stumbling block for people to get back on their feet, Das replies in the negative, saying: "Livelihood is picking up, but slowly. In the rural areas people have been able to cultivate their land. As for skilled labour, like masons, carpenters and electricians, there are jobs aplenty, not so for unskilled ones as construction has not picked up pace due to inclement weather. A vast majority of men have returned to their respective workplaces in the urban centres." Well into their second winter that not only started a month earlier, in November, but is far more severe than the previous one, resettling is all the more challenging. "In such a scenario, how can we expect these people to get on with life?" asks Dohad. But perhaps the biggest stress they now face is the uncertainty of what lies ahead having lost everything and the government not meeting their expectations. Their predicament is further exacerbated by the excruciatingly slow pace of resettlement which, Dohad says, needs to be addressed. Reconstruction and rebuilding remain the greatest challenges for both the government and its partner organisations. Getting the instalment for reconstruction of homes is a long-drawn out and tedious process, standing in long queues for hours or even days on end; too much documentation for a population that is not very literate nor has its documents in order; as well those who have lost their papers under the rubble are some of genuine problems faced by the people causing inordinate delays. "This is because there is a huge communication gap between the community and Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (ERRA)," says Das, blaming the authority on its weak monitoring system. "Who shall the community complain to if ERRA is not delivering?" He feels once people get their own homes, they will feel more settled and be able to think clearly about the future plan of action. Till then, says Dohad one will see high levels of anxiety "as people see fewer changes in their lives". They may have moved from tents to transitional homes, but life is still at a standstill as far as they are concerned. "For many life is in a state of limbo." And it is this uncertainty, according to her, which has taken on the forms of anxiety and anger.
World of difference Move to a place where economic conditions are better and you may already be regarded as successful By Zahra Hidayatullah We all have friends or family living abroad -- students,
or the work force, or immigrants. Each one of us is at least acquainted with
someone who has adopted long term permanent residence in a foreign land. In
fact this quest for a better life has made people move to all parts of the
world. Today you will find Pakistanis everywhere under the sun; from Norway to Japan, Belgium to France, and Brazil to Hungary. However, this does not by any chance mean that migrations are only possible on an international scale. Upon closer observation, you will notice your driver's talk is accented, or that your gatekeeper speaks a different language when he gets a call from home. This domestic staff has also migrated from their villages to big cities. They say love can move mountains. In this day and age, it is economics that makes the world go round. Although there may be a hundred and one reasons why people move away from their home-base but one of the primary factors is better work opportunities. According to a UN estimate these migrants account for 3 per cent of global population which would translate to 190 million international migrants (2005 figures), and if they were to constitute a country, it would be the sixth most populous one in the world. Although nothing may seem fancier than having cousins or friends living the American dream, on occasions of celebration and festivity they are missed the most. As they are unable to make it to a close relative's wedding or visit the grieving family upon the death of a dear friend, we realise that their life may not be as hunky-dory as we imagined it to be. Yet these are not the only issues that these first-generation immigrants might face in their host countries. Amongst other things, if they are moving to the first-world developed countries, they need to put customs and tradition on the back burner and move ahead with the trends prevalent in the place where they have moved to. People who do not comply are often leading their race into direct conflict with the social structure of the place. For example, most Pakistanis who moved to the UK in the 1960s and 70s have held onto the same values prevalent in Pakistan at the time. Even though native Pakistanis have moved on from there, these immigrants have a greater tendency to hang on to the past. Some start living in a time warp and others desperately hope to make enough before they are able to afford themselves a comfortable living back home one day. Belonging to a family of landowners, Raza Dittu is a classic example. He moved from a small village in the Punjab to the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. Together, him and his wife worked in a textile factory, where he moved up the corporate ladder before retiring as factory manager. Both of them dreamed of saving up enough so they could come back to Pakistan one day and lead a comfortable life. Initially Mrs Dittu felt homesick and socially isolated. Language also acted as a barrier to her communal growth. However, she never felt compelled to make an effort; until the couple bore children. That is when they changed their minds and decided to stay put. In contrast to Pakistan, they started appreciating what the UK could offer them and their children in terms of education policies, health care and other social benefits. In a country where, according to World Bank statistics, 32.6 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line, the basics are hard to meet and middle class constitutes only a small fraction of the total population. There exists a wide gulf between the rich and the poor and due to this economic disparity the economy is not self-sustainable. Mix our cultural context of joint family systems in this situation, and one realises that as part of human nature, people start competing against each other. The minute a person migrates to a place where economic conditions are sounder, they are deemed successful already. Their social standing rises and sometimes just the move is enough to place them a notch higher than the rest. Mohammad Yaseen, 48, was nothing short of a hero when at the age of 21 he moved out of his small village in Azad Kashmir in 1980 to seek employment in Lahore as a cook. "I used to buy watches from here and sell them back home every time I went for a visit. They sold like hot cakes only because they were from the town." The general perception in this stratum of society is that the best way to make money is to get out of the country. Away from the social pressures, these people lead a life based purely on economic pursuits. Where mowing lawns and working at a fast food joint was once considered shameful, the same jobs are handled with pride once a person moves to New Jersey. Saira and Chaudhry Javed moved to Canada some nine years ago. An ex-army officer, Chaudhry Javed lacked the educational background or the skill to acquire another job after being dismissed from the forces on health grounds. Constantly living in debt and facing financial troubles, even Rs 5000 a month would have meant a great deal to them. However, working as a driver when most relatives around him drove their own Japanese models would have meant banishment from the circle of friends and family forever. However, away from the social pressures, this couple is free to live a life based purely on economic pursuits. "I now work as domestic help in the homes of the privileged and Javed drives a cab in the city. Our children go to public schools and things finally seem to be working out in life," says Saira. One of the main reasons for economic displacement is the disparity between the economic systems of the developed world as opposed to that of the developing world. Labour tends to be one of the most expensive resources in the West, whereas unemployment due to abundance in numbers is a common phenomenon in the developing world. For this reason, skilled labour is underpaid at home and over-paid abroad. Also rising inflation is not matched by equally staggering wage hikes. A driver who earns Rs 6000 a month can barely support his family and educate them at the same time. However, the same person can sustain himself and still be able to wire money back home if he becomes part of the developed world. Amir Malik is a 36 year old Pakistani American who moved out to New York in 1985. Unable to complete his studies due to a financial crunch, he shifted to the Land of Opportunities and started earning his livelihood by driving a cab. Two decades later, he is the proud owner of 5 cars that he has leased out to other Pakistani drivers and is leading a comfortable life. "I live here with my wife and my mother lives back home in Lahore, travelling to the States every year. By the grace of God, I fund her annual ticket, and provide for her living as well as managing my own in a style much grander than I could have ever thought possible." It is mainly this explanation that led to a large scale migration of the blue-collared work force to the UK in the 1960s and to the United States and the Gulf in the 80s. Although this shift of drivers, carpenters, and other skilled labour translates into much-needed foreign exchange earnings for their country of origin, it is the white-collared migration that hampers the social and economic growth of their own country. A brain-drain occurs when doctors, engineers, lawyers and bankers move out in search for better opportunities. In today's socio-political setup second and third generation migrants do not have it easy. They tend to face social tensions, civic conflict, and xenophobia amongst other problems. Although the developed world is now forming strict immigration policies, and racial intolerance is on the increase, economic ambitions still drive the underprivileged to dream of a better tomorrow away from home.
Religious and mythological beliefs, fairy tales and common folklore have all impressed upon us the attraction of living 'happily ever after' By Aziz Omar The pursuit of happiness and the fulfillment of dreams is a natural human tendency. The desire to live an ideal life has been conditioned in the human psyche over the millennia. Religious and mythological beliefs, fairy tales and common folklore have all impressed upon us the attraction of living 'happily ever after' in an otherworldly utopian setting. For many of us the entire purpose of life is to gain entry into a perfect higher realm. Escapism has become a trait that transgresses class, creed or social status. For children, the grownup stage in life is made out to be the real deal, a magical time when all early age dreams can come true. Preteens thus can't wait to grow and realise their fantasies, as well as taken seriously which would only be possible one they reach adulthood. And what with the morose and stuffy curriculum that the young school-goers have to endure, they can only count the years when they would be able to be in control of their own lives. However, the fanciful craving of flying away from one's de facto living conditions does not just fade away with the onset of apparent mental maturity. As money and status become the perceived keys to a life of contentment, people belonging to all socio-ethnic backgrounds and varying income levels aspire to one day live like a seth. People with rural holdings such as farmlands and orchards have, over the years, liquidated their holdings to adopt an urbanised elite lifestyle. Those with fewer assets to start from have invested heavily into overnight, get-rich-quick schemes as well as taken advantage of the recent boom in the real estate market. The 'do or die' trying approach to an ideal life has resulted in creating a stereotype of a two-kanal kothee in posh residential areas such as DHA, a fleet of servants, and beside other cars, an exclusive S-class Mercedes or 7-series BMW or the more popular Lexus Cruiser. Students of different academic programmes are perpetually struggling with the dilemma of attaining a respectable degree, one that will land them a lucrative career. This has been deemed for them to be the solution to all their life's woes, of which financial ones are the foremost. Saad, a student of MBA in a prominent university of Lahore, has his dreams neatly summed up at the culmination of his degree: "I can see it all right now, a job in a prestigious multinational company, a club membership, regular dinning out in restaurants and two cars in the driveway of my very own house." This 'genie in the magic lamp granting wishes' kind of thinking about academic degrees has left hopeful graduates in the grips of a presumed future scenario which is the end-all as far as they are concerned. Sometimes we expect deliverance from our despicable lives by an external saviour. The Sino-Pak friendship has always been a mainstay of our foreign policy and, of late, the government has been projecting economic rewards out of it. Dams, industries and sea ports are being credited to Chinese investment, as well as the revenue from such projects that will presumably liberate the common man from the shackles of poverty. On the flip-side, those individuals already processing some financial resources are hell-bent upon securing a lifeline to foreign lands. Whether that be through undertaking professional exams such as ACCA, USMLE or those such as TOEFL required in qualifying for immigration, countries such as USA, UK and Canada are identified with visions of prosperity and a better life. Even then, the ground reality for foreign settlers in such places is far from the wonderful life of natural citizens depicted in the media and films. Having dreams and being ambitious about an ideal is the primary human drive. The pipedreams that everything will be fine once we get to a particular time and place, or when something or someone will come and set everything right for us.
No amount of compensation and no alternative lands for resettlement are enough to compensate what people lose By Zulfiqar Shah Usman, 50, and dozens of other residents of Hassan Olya
village on the bank of the Lyari river in Karachi are soon to lose their
homes to what the government considers one of the biggest development
projects in the city. Their modest houses are the last obstacle in the way of
the under-construction Lyari Expressway. Thousands others like them have already been displaced to clear land for the two-lane expressway being built with billions of rupees. Those still unwilling to move out of the road's way face forced eviction as and when construction approaches where they live. Usman says his family is traumatised by the prospect of eviction. "It's really difficult to leave this place. We been living here for years. Good or bad, it has many advantages over many other places in the city," he says. Usman and his fellow villagers should consider themselves lucky. They are entitled to receive a compensation package including Rs 50,000 and a plot measuring 80 Square yards in any of the three resettlement colonies developed for those displaced by the expressway. The government says it has earmarked Rs 4 billion for resettling those displaced by the Layari Expressway. Some 25,000 people, whose homes were demolished to make way for the road, have been compensated already, according to the government claims. But Usman points out that resettling in Taisar town, one of the three colonies, far away from the city centre, will be disastrous. He and his two brothers earn their livelihood as fruit vendors in an area not far from their home. They are also worried as to how they will be able to build a new house of their own with just Rs 50,000, the amount of money the government is offering as compensation. "We built our home in 15 years and it cost us all our saving over all these years," says Usman. "We spent Rs 250,000 to build this home and now they are offering just one fifth of this money to build a new one." According to an assessment by the Urban Resource Centre (URC), an NGO opposed to evictions, many people displaced by the Lyari Expressway have already sold land allotted to them for resettlement to make ends meet. "They are living in rented housed in much worse conditions than they were before evictions," the organisation notes. Though the villagers glumly point out that the compensation package is not enough to meet their resettlement needs, they remain unaware of the fact that hundreds of thousands of others in the country have been displaced in the name of development without having received any compensation. Take fishermen in lower Sindh. They have lost their homes and livelihood due to the shortage of water which has resulted from the construction of dams and barrage in the upper parts of the country. It's not just that they have never been considered eligible for compensation. In fact, they have never even been officially acknowledged as the victims of development. Many of them have migrated to Karachi and other parts of the country. Those who have opted to stay put in their ancestral villages are living a tough life due to a lack of livelihood opportunities and shortage of basic amenities. Similarly, hundreds of poor people have been displaced due to flawed development projects like the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) and the Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD). They lost everything they had when development came calling but no one is offering them any hopes of compensation, let alone resettlement. This hardly helps the fact that those displaced by development projects like big dams back in 1970s are yet to be compensated for their losses. Not only that: The numbers of people not being compensated for displacement caused by development projects is swelling as new dams are being built and old ones are being revamped. This is what has happened to the people displaced by the construction of Chotiari Dam and the remodelling of Taunsa Barrage. These people may belong to different ethnic groups and speak different languages but their tragedy is common: They have been uprooted from their homes and in most cases are left without any resettlement and/or compensation. "People's lives have been ruined in the name of development projects in our country," says Mustafa Talpur, senior programme officer at ActionAid Pakistan. "What we see as a result of projects like LBOD, RBOD is nothing but a human disaster," he adds. Mustafa says in this situation it is a legitimate question to ask: Development for whom? If it's for a certain group and takes place at the cost of the poor people, then its rationale needs to be questioned, he observes. Any development that is selective and does not fulfil the criteria of justice and equality should be rejected, he adds. Mohammad Younis, director of the Urban Resource Centre says: "Displaced people are pushed one generation back as a result of their condition. Their living standards also deteriorate." An architect by training, Muhammad Younis says he knows people who had to discontinue the education of their children after displacement. "Women and children suffer the most because of displacement," he says. In many cases, people displaced by a development project have been literally left under the open sky or they are forced to stay on the rubble of their houses for days. Information provided by the Urban Resource Centre field workers suggests that many people displaced by various development projects in Karachi have set up a slum outside of the city after their eviction for their original homes. No research has so far been done to look into where all the displaced people go but generally they restart their lives by occupying a piece of land which does not belong to them. This keeps them vulnerable to future displacements if and when the original owner of the land asserts his or her right. The impact of displacement is even worse in rural areas where the displaced people sometimes have to shift to cities, uprooting their cultural and social links, and as a result suffer from psychological problems. Though there are no accurate statistics available on those displaced in the rural areas, various organisations have put the number of people displaced by projects like the Ghazi Brotha power project, Chotiari Dam and Chashma Barrage at about 150,000. Most of them have been given no compensation and offered no alternative land for resettlement. An additional 170,000 households are under threat of displacement as result of some on-going or planned projects like the Greater Thal Canal, Gwadar port, Thar coal-mining project and other irrigation-related projects. "People forcibly evicted to build Chotiari Dam are devastated," says Majeed Mangrio, one of those displaced due to the construction of the dam. "They have lost everything -- their homes, farmlands, grazing grounds and fishing ponds," says Majeed who also heads a community-based organisation. He knows hundreds of displaced people still in search of shelter. "These people are living as nomads." He points out that all these people were well-settled in their ancestral homes before the 'development'. "Their lives were simple but they were happy." The government's resettlement and compensations, in fact, are made without considering the economic and social conditions of the displaced people. These plans are without exception marred by stories of corruption, favouritism and mismanagement. In Chotiari resettlement plan, the government itself has admitted that funds were embezzled. Several inquiries have been instituted to determine as to who is responsible for this. "There is no transparency and accountability in the process of resettlement," says Muhammad Younis of the Urban Resource Centre. "Many displaced people never receive compensation while many others get paid despite not being displaced," he adds. His views are supported by the government's contradictory claims regarding the number of the people displaced by the Lyari Expressway and the money needed for their resettlement. Initial government survey suggested that the total number of the people to be displaced by the project would be 14,000 but now it is claiming that it has already paid compensation to 25,000 people. Where have these additional people come from? Has the government missed out many real victims in its initial estimates or is it that many people have been able to get them registered as displaced through their political and administrative links? There are no answers for these questions, except hollow claims of transparency and accountability by the government in all the development projects it carries out. Apparently, displacement has become an integral part of all the development projects. If that's the case the next victim of development will be Tharparkar, the poverty striven desert district of Sindh. The authorities are eyeing to exploit the district's coal reserves to fulfill the energy requirements of the country. Initial reports suggest that about 60,000 people will be displaced as a result of coal-mining in Tharparkar. Around 46 villages will be left without a trace by the government plans to extract coal to use for electricity generation. Experts accept some displacement is inevitable because of development but they also suggest that there are ways to reduce the sufferings of displaced people or at least minimise the scale of displacement. "There are always alternatives available but our government is not willing to listen," says Muhammad Younis. "There were viable alternatives of the Layari Expressway involving no or little displacement but the government did not pay heed to them," he adds. He says that deciding factor of development projects in our country is profitability for the contractors, developers, politicians and civil servants and not benefits for the common people. Sadly, there is no process of consultation in designing and executing development projects. According to Younis, if the government adopts a proper process of consultation in designing and execution of development projects it will find out that people are not against development. "They will want minimum losses to take place and they will ask for appropriate compensation but they will not oppose development projects," he says. "This process will not only provide legitimacy to development projects, it will also reduce the number of people displaced by those projects."
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