Parveen Rehman: a fighter for the poor silenced
dawn.comA media-shy social worker who devoted her life to the development of the impoverished neighbourhoods across the country, was gunned down near her office in Orangi Town on Wednesday. She was 56.
Arif Pervez, development professional and a friend of hers, said Ms Rehman had been receiving death threats for a long time, apparently from the mafia involved in grabbing precious land on the fringes of the city.
“She had been receiving threats on her life for a long time. We had discussed this several times but every time I advised her to take care of herself, she smiled, waved her hand and said what will they do, I have to work a lot and that too in the middle of the people,” Mr Pervez said.
Ms Rehman was an ardent compiler of the record of precious lands, which were on the fringes of the city in shape of villages but were speedily vanishing into its vastness because of ever-increasing demand by thousands of families who were shifting to Karachi every year from across the country.
She said on record that around 1,500 goths (villages) had been merged into the city since 15 years. Land-grabbers subdivided them into plots and earned billions by their sale.
“She documented everything about the lands that have been grabbed. Another sin of her was to help those whose lands had been grabbed. Yet, she never hesitated to go to the area where her life was constantly under threat,” Mr Pervez said.
Socially Responsible Architect Parveen Rehman
If I am aware of these nuances today, it is because of Parveen. If I disagree with the popular discourse that this country has gone to the dogs, it is because of teachers like her. People like her, who chose not to runaway in the face of threats, fears of losing loved ones and being left alone to deal with problems…. Problems of sectarian violence, of Tehreek-e-Taliban, of land grabbers, tanker mafia and in all this, the political ‘gamers’. The ones who love playing the blame game as they please, who say its a foreign Jewish, Indian conspiracy when Shia are killed, but are jumping the gun this time by saying the Taliban killed her.
To the politically linked land-mafia…. we haven’t forgotten Nisar Baloch, who worked for saving the Gutter Baghicha. And we won’t forget Parveen Rehman. We lost an educator, who shaped a generation of socially responsible architects, planners, teachers and activists. She left a legacy and you cannot take that away!
PS: Also found out today about how they killed Abdul Ghani for Kakapir Mangrove Project. And still morons want to claim it was the Taliban.
