11-12-2006, 03:52 PM
<b>Mudy Ji :</b>
Here is an interesting Article about the ownership of the Two Islands which have been handed over to UAE Builders-Developers :
[center]<b><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Who owns the two islands? - Zamir Ghumro</span></b> <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->[/center]
URL when Article Archived : http://www.dawn.com/weekly/encounter/200...unter4.htm
WHILE the government of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has barely recovered from the scandal of the sale of Pakistan Steel Mills at a throwaway price to a favourite consortium, <b>the news of the sale of Sindhâs two Islands by the federal government in a (secret) deal with a UAE business group has come as a rude shock to the nation.
The $43 billion deal had been kept so secret that until now nobody knows who signed on behalf of the federal government and which stakeholders were present at the signing ceremony.</b> It was only after the Pakistan Fisher Folk Forum, Mahgeer Tahreek and some political parties of Sindh held protest demonstrations against this mega project which is likely to environmentally affect almost five million people of coastal communities from Karachi to Thatta district, that the government came out with an unconvincing reply. The prime minister, while addressing a meeting at the Governor House, Sindh stated that the land of the Bundal and Buddo Islands belonged to the ministry of ports and shipping.
<b>According to the Sindh Board of Revenue sources, the area is not mentioned in the lease given to the Port Qasim Authority which did apply for this land in 1970s but their request was rejected. So, when the PQA itself does not enjoy the right of ownership of the land where it is located, how can it sell this land to a foreign company?</b> The Sindh chief minister initially feigned ignorance about this project. But the Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Co-ordination Salim Saifullah made it clear that the CM was in fact present at the signing ceremony of the deal between the Emaar Group of UAE and the federal government.
Apparently, there are three stakeholders: the federal government, the Sindh government and local fishermen. The question is: which one of them legally owns the land? Why this deal was signed secretly? And what are the repercussions of this ambitious but highly controversial mega project? All government land in the provinces is solely vested in their respective boards of revenue. Even the unowned property constitutionally belongs to the provinces under Article 172(1) of the constitution. However, under Article 172(2), all land, minerals and other things of value âwithin the continental shelfâ (my emphasis) or âunderlying the oceanâ within the territorial waters of Pakistan shall vest in the federal government. This means all land, minerals and other things lying beneath waters belong to the federal government and it can extract oil, gas and other minerals but the lands above waters (Islands) do not belong to it and are solely the property of provincial governments.
The continental shelf is a technical term defined in the Convention on law of Sea, 1982 and denotes an area where a littoral state can exploit its under-water sea resources. It extends from the baseline of the coast but contains an area of steep and deep waters. Under Article 152 of the Constitution, the federation may acquire any land in the province if it deems necessary for a purpose connected with a matter with respect to which Parliament has power to make laws. It may require the province to acquire the land on behalf, and at the expense, of the federation, and, if the land belongs to the province, transfer it to the federation on such terms as may be agreed or, in default of agreement, as may be determined by an arbitrator appointed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan.
This shows that any land in the province whether public or private can only be acquired and transferred by the province on behalf of federal government and, secondly, the federal government can only acquire such land for the purposes with respect to subjects on which parliament has power to legislate.
We have seen this in the case of controversial acquisition of land by Punjab government in July this year for a foreign owned company which wants to establish a Mercedez-Benz car plant, a golf club, a luxury hotel etc., near Lahore. Ironically, in the case of mega projects in Punjab, the land is acquired by the provincial government even for foreign companies whereas in case of Sindh, the federal government itself doles out the land bypassing constitutional requirements and by coercing a politically weak government.
Housing is the exclusive domain and subject of the provinces and it has nothing to do with the federal government. How the federal government can acquire land for such purpose on which parliament cannot legislate? Where in the Constitution the federal government has been authorised to launch housing schemes and act as a real estate agent?
This shows that the federal government wants to encroach upon the sovereignty of the provinces in the matters of land on the pretext of attracting foreign investment. It is this very provincial sovereignty and independence that the Pakistan movement leaders had protected in Lahore Resolution of 1940. Even under much maligned 1973 Constitution, the provincial sovereignty extends to the matters of land, fishing, and small ports.
The federal government should not have double standards in is dealings with the provinces. In the majority province, it allows the acquisition of land for a foreign company by the provincial government whereas in the case of smaller provinces, it acts as a real estate agent by violating the Constitution. It is because of this very reason that one witnesses popular resentment in Balochistan when the federal government, instead of establishing Gawadar Port for national interests, started acquiring land in order to establish housing colonies which is, in fact, the job of the provincial government.
Under section 38 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, any company or corporation can approach the provincial Government to initiate land acquisition process. The people who own that land are to be informed, consulted and compensated at market price. As per provisions of this Act, the land acquired by the government for public purposes can only be utilised for that purpose only. In case, the land is used for extraneous purposes, it automatically reverts back to the lessor.
Even if the land of Bundal and Buddo islands has been leased out to the Port Qasim Authority, which is factually incorrect, it cannot sell that land for the purpose of establishing a mega-city. It is neither the job of the ministry of ports and shipping nor constitutionally the subject of the federal government.
The Sindh government, which claims this land meekly and grudgingly knowing its political limitations, has probably acquiesced in the deal. Its public posture that it has not been consulted is simply to pre-empt any hostile public reaction. The center also wants this kind of unrepresentative set-up in Sindh and Balochistan.
The fishermen communities claim that the land belongs to them as they have been using both the islands as a staging ground for fishing and they have inalienable historical rights over it. The provincial government has, under Sindh Goth Abad Scheme, distributed tens of thousands of `sanadsâ conferring proprietary rights on those people who established abode there more than ten years. In the case of these islands, it could, at least, have protected the interests of local fishermen who stand already ignored in the development of Karachi.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan in Shela Zia case has unambiguously recognised the right of people to livelihood. It says that the right to life guaranteed under Article 9 of the Constitution includes right to livelihood, which must be protected by the government. In the case of fishermen this right has always been violated in Sindh. A federal force called Pakistan Rangers has practically established its control over Sindh waters in Badin and Thatta and excluded the fishermen whereas in this case the fishermen are being uprooted by no less an authority than the federal government itself through a secret deal signed in Islamabad.
<b><i>The writer is a Barrister-at-law based at Karachi</i></b>
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->