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ISSUES
Land Disposal Ordinance: a
sign of hope
The Governor of Sindh
promulgated the Sindh Disposal of Urban Land Ordinance 2002 (SDULO)
on 26 March 2002. The ordinance lays down a regulating
framework for the disposal of urban land.
It addresses subjects related to land use in correspondence to
the structures / buildings; mechanisms of land disposal; land
pricing; amenity usages; land use conversions; relationship of
lease conditions with land use; incremental housing
settlements and most of all discretionary powers of the
provincial executive authority for disposal of land. This
ordinance was much awaited to regulate the land disposal,
management and conversion - an all important category of urban
administration. It will be useful to review the prescriptions
of this ordinance in the backdrop of the prevailing conditions
and issues related to urban land in Sindh.
Land is a finite resource. Sindh, as a province, had
considerable reserves of state land which later fell within
the limits of urban areas. Historically, this land which was
considered as an asset was carefully utilized for residential,
commercial, agricultural, recreational, industrial and other
purposes, at least in the large cities; its status changed
considerably. Instead of an asset, it was viewed as a tradable
commodity. This gave rise to evolution of a land market which
was entirely uncontrolled, discretionary and haywire in
nature. Nascent market forces determined the utilization and
transaction of land compared to rational public choices.
Political interest has been one of the prime factors that
determined the procedure of land supply. This interest
superseded the urban and regional planning considerations,
objectives and policies of the administration, fiscal
liabilities and even legal limitations. Whereas the upper
tiers of government were largely involved in this process,
chief ministers of various governments played key roles in
land allotment due to the infinite authority vested in his
office as well as the political clout that he enjoyed in the
national and provincial politics. Bypassing the laws,
regulations and norms thus became a routine exercise which did
not let any land supply mechanism to function.
In brief, land parcels were allotted due to political pressure
from the influentials / party workers and bullies of various
kinds. Political bribes were also given in the form of land.
The announcement and cancellation of housing schemes was done
on the same basis. Government departments, law enforcing
agencies, financial institutions and urban development
authorities simply became a carrier of orders in that working
setup.
Land disposal schemes mostly developed as a clandestine
marriage of convenience rather than a transparent and equal
opportunity enterprise. The attempts made in this respect have
been severely criticized by the users, media and analysts. For
instance, in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Karachi, the process of
prioritization of development of different sectors had a key
relationship in the rise of land and property prices. All
these changes took place due to the personal relationships of
the concerned individuals with the public sector officials,
not the public sector itself.
Traditionally existing pattern of land ownership has a direct
bearing on its transition in the urban scenario. The clan
influences, appropriation and possession of land were the
important factors that governed the directions of development.
When land was in private ownership under traditional
landlords, they lobbied with the public sector officials to
devise the development policies/priorities to maximize their
own benefit.
Planning and development of communication schemes,
transportation projects and investment in infrastructure
schemes were largely manipulated on the same basis. The
fringes of large cities are the most important choices in this
regard. The north western outskirts of Karachi is one of the
main locations where local landlords have traditionally
benefited from the growth of the city.
From the socio-cultural standpoint, land is regarded as the
most cherished asset. Its sharing is not considered as a
desirable move. Contrarily housing and land supply was done on
pure commercial guidelines. Therefore acquisition and
expropriation of land entirely became a function dependent on
individual choices. In cases where social pressures, economic
needs and an initiative towards enterprise evolved, the
landowners agreed to willingly participate in the process.
Otherwise the procedure remained halted for years. The entire
process of informal development in the fringes of Karachi is
an example. As the landlords were desperately in need of
capital, they favoured urbanization and settlement. A
landlord, Wadera Mohammad Khan Rind of Yaqoobabad, Orangi
himself became an informal sector investor after assessing the
prospective benefits of this business in 1980s (for details,
see 'Seven Reports on Housing' by Arif Hasan, 1992, OPP-RTI
Press). Uniform decision making was seldom applied to such
situations.
The existing patterns of land supply created a visible
disparity between the privileged and non-privileged classes.
As mentioned earlier, land was procured, developed and sold
through the priorities and conditions laid down by the public
sector agencies in liaison with the powerful interest groups.
These groups attempted to maximize their respective profits by
moulding the decisions making in their own favour.
Land supply was one such prerogative. Thus the unprivileged
had to fend for themselves in the informal locations as per
availability of land. Many negative repercussions have
developed in the course. The inner city ring of Karachi
between 0-10 kilometres radius has most of the upper income
groups residing in the area. Squatters and low income
localities are far away making the poor to commute long
distances to their places of work in dilapidated transport
systems.
One factor that did not allow transparent land disposals was
that the land was considered as an individual reward and not a
collective resource. Its allotment, leasing and selling
pattern clearly established this fact. The public sector
agencies and urban development authorities (UDAs) that
directly functioned under the tutelage of the provincial
government, were perhaps the best example in this regard.
According to the conventional procedure, the land was
developed and allotted by the UDAs as per their respective
programs and plans. The people were invited to apply through
the prescribed procedure after payment of the stipulated
charges. However the land was distributed in parallel by the
same agencies to the assorted individuals and groups in many
ways.
Allotment of land under the orders of chief minister (or prime
minister in some cases), free allotment as compensation
against 'services rendered' for the country and direct
allotment of land from the Board of Revenue bypassing the
urban development authorities were some of the prominent ways
through which land was obtained. Land parcels were also gifted
for recognising one's efforts in some domain.
Personnel of civil services, armed forces and relations of
politicians normally benefited. Due to these self-violations
of the stipulated procedures, the external actors were
encouraged to find alternate means of obtaining land for
development leaving the institutional procedures to decay on
their own.
In the procedures of land development and supply, the
distinction between formal and informal sector is swiftly
diminishing due to the incapability of the formal sector to
control the overall factors that affect land market. The
concepts and implementation mechanisms of the public sector
have begun accepting the existence of informal sector
operations to a considerable extent.
This is evident from the fact that evictions of informal
settlements have been taken after cautions and the government
regularises them in the usual working norms. De-facto
ownership of land is now given due regard in the development
operations and is often temporarily recognized. Besides direct
transaction of raw land from the Board of Revenue to the user
groups is another citation in this respect where the
conventional water-tight authority is not extended towards
such activities. In fact, the acceptance (at least at the
conceptual level) of the Incremental Housing Development (IHD)
is another evidence where the government recognizes squatting
as an option if it is guided through some basic plan.
The IHD, in comparison to the other options of land supply and
housing, has been found as the most effective mode that can
bring about a change in the land and housing situation in the
province. It has the advantage of possessing adaptability for
urban, semi-urban and rural areas due to its flexibility of
approach.
However several basic aspects need to be resolved if the
concept is to be given a wider application. The concept
requires basic institutional cover from the provincial
government, city and district governments and the other
departments of the province for application. The authority of
land distribution need to be decentralised so as to
incorporate the local priorities to an optimum extent.
Besides, the construction and development bye-laws of the
respective localities have to be adjusted according to the
sociology and economics of the settlers.
The promulgation of SDULO, 2002 is undoubtedly a welcome move.
It is the beginning of a positive initiative that should be
supported by all quarters. Following are some measures that
may help in the enforcement of the law in letter and spirit.
In a scenario which is constantly adjusting according to the
prevailing socio-political developments, an effective option
for mutual benefit of the actors is the availability of
up-to-date and factually correct information. The availability
of this resource alone can resolve a number of discrepancies
as it will foster effective and accurate decision making by
various interest groups.
The process of negotiations will also improve since the
scenario would be objectively analysed by each of the
participating actor. This need is also emphasized in the
National Housing Policy which proposes to create a
Comprehensive Land Information System. Collaboration is
however, needed between government institutions and private
sector operators for a meaningful outcome.
The government of Sindh had also undertaken a land survey
exercise few years ago which was stopped for reasons not
known. It will be useful if the results of the previous survey
are updated and the survey exercise expanded to all the
districts that were not included in the previous assignment.
Up-to-date land records can certainly form the first step
towards curbing corruption and malpractice in the land
disposal processes.
Karachi and other large and medium sized cities of the
province are currently grappling with market forces related to
land. Without a planning and regulatory framework, it will be
impossible to chalk out a clear cut strategy/mechanism plans
for the cities of Sindh must be initiated without delay.
Correspondingly, steps should be taken to provide legal covers
to the plans. It must be noted that plans without a legal
cover are not worth more than an academic exercise.
The orientation of the district, town and union governments
must be done in relation to land assets. Each tier of the
local government has a moral and legal responsibility in their
respective jurisdictions regarding land control. At the union
and town level, the capacity building of the administration
must be done to pro-actively enforce the prescriptions of the
said ordinance in consultation with their respective
communities. District and city district governments are
required to set up planning and land control departments to
oversee the situation of land disposal, monitor the nature of
land transactions as well as develop and update respective
regulatory mechanisms for enforcement through the lower tiers.
courtesy Daily Dawn, 8
April, 2002
Views presented
here are of those of the writer and Pakissan.com is not liable
them.
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