KARACHI`S gradual metamorphosis into a concrete jungle is the outcome of several factors: lack of urban planning, unchecked corruption and a callous disregard for people`s quality of life. The Supreme Court has now acted in the matter: on Wednesday a two-judge bench ordered KDA to cancel all illegal allotments of amenity plots and remove encroachments from around 35,000 amenity plots in the city within two months. The issue of such encroachments had come to the fore a few days earlier during the hearing of an application filed by a woman alleging that KDA had allotted her an amenity plot in lieu of her own plot. Land officials came in for harsh criticism by the apex court which pointed out that they had ignored a similar order it had issued back in 2011.

Amenity plots are often eyed avariciously by influential elements of society, whether they wield their influence through the barrel of a gun or by virtue of their political/institutional clout. In Karachi, it is often a mix of both that has resulted in thousands of such spaces being utilised for commercial or residential purposes, often through the process known as `china cutting`. The term refers to the carving out of plots from land earmarked for playgrounds, green belts and other public services that are then sold off.

Sometimes, amenity plots are illegally taken over wholesale by educational institutions and madressahs/mosques, or rented out for marriages and various private functions. These shenanigans take place in collusion with a corrupt bureaucracy that facilitates the land grabbers by issuing permits and approvals in brazen violation of the law. Reiterated by a Sindh High Court decision in 2003, the law states that no amenity plot can be converted to, or utilised for, any other purpose than originally intended. The so-called custodians of Karachi`s assets, who set such little store by the residents` needs, must no longer be allowed to get away with shamelessly using public land to enrich themselves.