Recently with more time to spare, I’ve returned to being an avid walker and I clock in my seven thousand steps daily at the F-9 Park in the capital, also known as Fatima Jinnah Park. I’ve lived in Islamabad since I was ten-years old and have experienced dozens of places to walk since as far back as I can remember — the Margalla Hills trails, the Naval colony, the cricket ground in F-6, around the block (rather, the sector one lives in), recently Islamabad Club’s polo ground, and so on. I’m sure you have your list too!
Since September 2020, walking daily at the F-9 Park has been my talisman for a feeling of freedom in pandemic times. My one-hour walk in this wide open oasis in the middle of the city has turned out to be more pleasurable than I had imagined —a beautiful space in a now clogged-up capital, I have the option of taking a different route every day amongst all the revamped soft gravel and paved paths which the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has invested in. The plantation and shrubbery in the park is maintained by packs of CDA gardeners on motorbikes and they have done an amazing job.
Top on my list of park positives is that it’s a gender friendly space — it’s a disturbing fact that in 2021 we are still searching for them. Here you see girls and women in all forms of dress, alone or with a partner or friends, enjoying their exercise without fear of being stared down or constrained. Ladies in full abayas and hijabs walk in happy abandon; so do bearded gents in shalwar kameez in solid Servis sneakers; aunties in dark glasses with their shawls flowing in the wind, serious male runners in shorts and toques, as well as women running in trendy tracks and a swinging ponytail. For a Pakistani public park, it’s really well-mannered and quite egalitarian. For families living in tight spaces, it has provided fresh air and a mental break from their tough realities; for disenfranchised youth it’s an ideal ramp for TikTok videos — I’ve seen dozens of young people acting for their phone camera. For dating couples the park provides the nicest benches for undisturbed conversation; and for newly-weds, it’s the perfect outdoor studio space for their forever clicks —pandemic or no pandemic, wedding shoots have continued unabated at the F-9 Park, everyone doesn’t have the advantage of a custom-made backdrop.
It’s here that I bump into friends and nod to the regulars on my beat. We are all nature lovers and the scenes before us every day give us peace and joy. Exactly the thoughts I share with my friends, renowned social activists Samar and Fauzia Minallah who cycle daily in the park. ‘It’s my piece of paradise in an ever-expanding Islamabad,’ says Fauzia who is not new to environmental activism, in fact she is a pioneer. ‘Almost a decade ago, just a handful of us were protesting against a fast food chain in the park. After my diagnosis, I had vowed to myself that my time with a placard to save one part or the other of Islamabad was over. Sadly now the Fatima Jinnah park is at risk. It is not just PTI — I protested against the Margalla tunnel during PML-N regime, hacking of trees during PPP’s tenure and the list is very long during the Musharraf era. Islamabad’s people need to rise above narrow and petty political affiliations and save this precious oasis for our children and grandchildren. Islamabad is blessed with bounties of nature that must be preserved for as long as possible. Even if the mortgage was only a suggestion it was a very bad idea.’
In December 2020, we were also flabbergasted when the CDA gave a go-ahead to the corporate bosses of Jazz, Pakistan’s most ubiquitously known mobile network, to set-up a drive-in cinema for the ‘entertainment’ starved elite of the city —yes, elite, because you need a car to watch a movie!
This new outdoor cinema is located in the area where the denizens of the not so upscale areas of town play cricket. Suddenly a vista of lovely trees and a vast ground was replaced with overloaded Jazz vinyl banners and food stands, ticket booths in the parking lot and a massive screen. No environmental assessment about the impact of this project on the park’s green space has been shared with the public. With the CDA part of the hastily conceived plan, there is really no one that the ordinary public can complain to. The placement of the cinema in a green area of the F-9 park has been a source of pain for all us nature lovers. We’re not sticks in the mud, rather people who play by the book. Please don’t mess with the sanctity of a public space is our mantra, especially a green space. Choose your venue according to the needs of your project — a cemented parking lot of a vast, rarely used government building could have worked!
To compound matters, the news about the F-9 Park being mortgaged by the government to get a loan of Rs500bn to ease its financial issues, caused feelings of unease about a public recreational space being misused. While I don’t know much about the intricacies of Sukuk bonds, nor do I have any political affiliations with any one political party, as a demoralised Pakistani the news of the issuance of an Islamic ‘Sukuk’ bond with the F-9 Park as its underlying asset totally tipped the balance of my daily routine!
The public park I use everyday was at risk —in the long term probably at risk of commercialization and environmental degradation. That morning, I contacted Samar Minallah and we decided to register our protest; that a public park can be used as collateral was not acceptable. What were the long-term environmental ramifications of such a decision? Who were the buyers and what would they do if the government couldn’t abide by the terms of the loan for this non-revenue generating asset. ‘It’s nothing,’ said finance friends. I was told this is routine for Sukuk bonds, since many institutions, buildings and roads have been mortgaged during the tenures of previous governments to get loans through national and international bonds. ‘It’s not a mortgage, just legal fiction,’ said a lawyer friend.’You could just as well do a fictional Sukuk on a bag of potatoes!’
‘But pledging a public park rather than a productive asset is hitting a new low! Sounds like we have run out of things to collateralize! It’s like when down-at-heel former royals start selling the family silver. You start with the silver and jewels and then it’s clothes, shoes, trinkets — are we there already? We need some public disclosure,’ said economist Safiya Aftab, who also joined our protest in the park.
‘This is just one more instance of the government, which is willing to sell off (through raising funds), to pay fees of judgements against us to due to bad governance. This is complete indication of successive incompetence. Why should public parks be used to pay fees and penalties which the Armed Forces lost in cases, of the contracts that they have violated,’ said activist and filmmaker Nilofer Afridi Qazi on the day of the protest at the F-9 Park.
Samar Minallah Khan and renowned activist Tahira Abdullah were both on the same page on the morning of the Cabinet meeting where the agenda included the F-9 Park mortgage scheme. Why did we step out to stand in the park with our banners and protest? ‘We have let the Margalla Hills and Saidpur Village be harmed in the name of commercialization. Islamabad is turning into a mound of concrete. The cinema at F-9 Park is yet another example of disregarding the very sanctity of a park. When will the people take ownership of public places and the environment? When will they speak up and question the damage that is being done?’ said Samar.
We were a motley crew who showed up at the park — a handful of women and a few die-hard environmental activists, including an ex-CDA retired director. Was this an elitist protest. No, not at all. As concerned citizens it is our responsibility to take a position, especially on behalf of those who cannot. This is the responsibility that comes with privilege. The young boys who were standing around the marble baradari, the location of our protest, taking selfies and making videos joined in our chanting. ‘Sada haq, aithay rakh’ they shouted raucously. That afternoon they went home slightly better informed than when they came to the F-9 Park.
What did we achieve? That evening we heard Prime Minister Imran Khan oppose the mortgage of Islamabad’s biggest park for launching Islamic-denominated Ijara Sukuk bonds at domestic and international markets. According to news sources, the Prime Minister has decided to mortgage the capital’s elite Islamabad Club instead. Most Pakistanis are not aware of the extent of the crisis we are in — mortgaging public assets, democratic accountability and a lack of transparency that overshadows the F-9 Park saga is ongoing. There is more to come on this story!
