Peoples Climate March–Karachi
25 organisations and many individuals staged peaceful “Peoples Climate March (PCM)” in Karachi from Boat Basin, Clifton to Bilawal house on December 12, 2021. The manifesto and demands of the march included provision of clean water, air, land rights, solving the housing crisis, ending the land grabbing by the rich and powerful, to stop demolitions, forced displacement, and for putting a check on turning already dense areas into concrete spaces. The placards in the march had messages like ‘Mahol nahi-nizaam ko badlo’ (Change the system not the environment), ‘Tum karo tau development-hum karein tau encroachment’ (When you build, you call it development, when we do the same, it is encroachment), ‘Nalko main paani do’ (Provide water in the taps), ‘Housing crisis is a climate crisis’, ‘Your greed-our death’ etc.
We are living in a moment of collective urgency, as the world is suffering from a catastrophic environmental crisis caused by the profit motivated, extractive practices of a few. Under the current capitalist system, we will not be able to save our shared environment, or our future on this planet. In light of the repeated failure of world governments and international regulatory bodies to alleviate this crisis, it is now obvious that the situation demands a people-centered response in the form of a grassroots struggle. People’s Climate March, Karachi was organized with a purpose as a people led response to this crisis, with victims of climate injustice at the forefront. The profit-motivated development practices of state institutions are continuously exacerbating the climate crisis, resulting in the destruction of vital restorative ecologies and the systematic and violent erasure of the most vulnerable people in our city.
The organizers of the march believe that the climate crisis has reached the point where the fight for climate justice has to take shape in two ways. On one hand, there is need to protect the surviving ecology, while on the other there is need to ensure that affectees of the ecological crisis receive justice. Their manifesto’s demands reflect these two. One set of demands need urgent redress, while the other set of demands address their long term aims for climate justice.
The short-term/immediate demands of the People’s Climate March included:
1. An end to the demolition of working-class homes and villages and the right to shelter be realized and action be taken against those officials who issued wrong (illegal) leases. 2. That a bill be passed in reference to the affectees of Gujjar and Orangi Nallahs, the Karachi Circular Railway and Haji Lemo Goth with the same urgency as displayed to protect “buildings” and the affectees be given alternative housing of 120 square yards that is based on household size in their districts. Cease the planning and construction of roads in the affected areas and land be given back to the people. 3. To ensure a transparent compensation process, and to resolve issues of IDs, cheques, CNICs and “cutting”, a Rehabilitation Committee should be constituted. This committee should include two members from each affected locality. At the same time, the current official plan should be made public, and modified through consultation with affectees. 4. Commercial plots and houses which have been less-than-30% demolished, should also be given IDs, cheques and alternative housing. At the same time, anyone who has land leftover may be allowed to build a boundary wall to protect their premises. 5. The Malir Expressway should be taken over to the left bank which is vacant, so that the agricultural land and houses of residents can be protected. 6. A completely new survey to be commissioned for The Malir Expressway Project, or a re-tender based on the February 2020 survey. A new Feasibility Report is also to be commissioned for the same. 7. The activities of the reti-bajri (river silt) mafia, which is working under the patronage of the government, need to be halted; these have led to the slow movement of the river towards the right threatening more than 30 indigenous villages and agricultural lands. 8. Industries should be removed from Malir and Kathore’s agricultural and residential areas and the establishment of new industry should be deterred. These are not only dangerous for Malir but pose an environmental threat for all of Karachi. 9. Projects of Bahria Town, DHA City, Commander City should be stopped and their leases should be canceled. They should also be bound to reimburse people who have bought property from them, at market value, because these projects are eating away at Karachi’s Green Belt and the livelihoods of indigenous communities. 10. The whole Indus Delta should be designated a Marine Protected Area (MPA). 11. The Khwajasira community has been rendered particularly vulnerable to exploitation and discrimination when accessing their right to shelter and safe housing. We demand that: i. the government set up a network of safe houses and community centres across the city that will be run by the community; ii. that the harassment and blatant discrimination against members of the community by housing societies and landlords be criminalized under provincial law; iii. and that the government work in close consultation with the community’s city leadership to develop a housing scheme specifically for trans women.
The long-term demands of the march included: an end to the forced displacement of marginalized communities in Karachi, a people-centered resolution to the water crisis, the right to clean air, the right to relief from heat-stress, land reclamation and protection of indigenous ecologies and people’s participation in environmental decision making.
Environmentalism without radical politics is merely gardening. To do anything meaningful about the climate catastrophe we must organise organise organise.
The march organizers faced brutality and violence before and during the march. The night before the People’s Climate march, the organizers held a meeting to wrap up the final details of the march. After the meeting, one of the organizers, a trans woman, was abducted on her way home. She was tortured and raped for information regarding the march’s programme and its speeches. The march centered the demand of working class people in Karachi who have been impacted by eco-fascist and extractive ‘development’ projects.
Participants at the march included many other groups, such as indigenous communities, people who have been dispossessed of their homes due to “green” planning agendas, among many other victims of climate injustice in Karachi. It is worth noting that this police violence was disproportionately directed towards a trans woman – that sexual violence was weaponized against one of the most vulnerable members of the organizing team, so that information about the march and its program could be extorted from her. Here the intersections between climate injustice, police brutality, and gendered violence become clear.
On the day of the march, as protestors arrived at Boat Basin, they were met with heavy contingents of police, and the march was blockaded and surrounded on all sides by, police vans. Protestors were only allowed to move forward inches at a time, with the explicit goal of not allowing the march to gather momentum and reach Bilawal House – the home of the chairman of the ruling party in Sindh – a party which ostensibly claims to stand for democracy, constitutional freedom, for human rights, and for environmental rights. The blatant state repression against this climate march is part of a sustained campaign of criminalization and police violence targeting economically and socially marginalised groups fighting against climate injustice. From Bahria Town to Gujjar and Orangi Nullah – organizers resisting forced displacements and climate injustice have been subjected to false terrorism charges, illegal detention, arrests, intimidation and abductions – all because they demand the right to a sustainable, equitable and just city.
As climate activists, the march organizers are outraged about the infringement of their constitutional right to protest and freedom to assemble. They demand accountability from the Sindh Government and the Sindh Police on behalf of all participating organizations.
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