It was about two years back when Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar raised hue and cry when the Sindh government handed over the iconic Bagh Ibne Qasim to Bahira town for ‘commercial use’. He has now granted permission to use Beach View Park – just opposite to Bagh Ibne Qasim – for the commercial use to Karachi Eat Festival.

The ongoing Karachi Eat Festival 2019, which is taking place at the Beach View park, may fulfill hunger pangs of some elitists of Karachi but the choice of venue seemed illegal. The entry fee is Rs 300.

Earlier this food festival used to take place at Frere Hall gardens, which also fall under the administrative control of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), but later it appeared that the permission granted to the organisers was illegal.

According to a notification from the Sindh government’s services and general administration department issued on November 23, 1998, there is a ban on the use of public parks and gardens falling within the administrative control of the KMC or the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) for private events.

CKO Event Architecture is private company which has been arranging Karachi Eat Festival in the city since long. The company belongs to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s (PTI) winning candidate from PS-125, Omar Omari and Aslam Khan, who has won from NA 245. These constituencies were Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) strongest hold, the Nine Zero. CKO Event Architecture has also been arranging PTI’s political events since long in Karachi.

”It has come to the knowledge of the officials that parks and gardens falling within the administrative control of the KMC and KDA or any other civic body are being hired and used for weddings and OTHER EVENTS in spite of the ban,” reads the notification referred above. It added that under no circumstances will permission to use public parks and gardens be granted for private functions.

Another notification from the Sindh’s local government department in June 1998, says that Bagh-e-Jinnah and Gulshan-e-Jinnah, being the prestigious parks of Karachi, should not be allowed for holding of functions except state functions, functions of high importance where foreign diplomats are required to attend, functions where president, prime minister, governor and chief minister are attending as chief guest and for flower show.

In the light of these notification the status of the permission granted to hold Karachi Eat Festival 2019 at Beach View Park became questionable. On January 8, 2019, commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shallwani also issued a notification that says that “Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan has ordered that the premises of all clubs and Gymkhanas play grounds and amenity plots in the city of Karachi shall not be used for wedding ceremonies/ functions and various commercial activities other than the purposes for which it was originally allotted/leased out.” The Beach View Park falls under the amenity plot status.

Responding to this, Shallwani told The Times of Karachi that the event taking place at the Beach View Park is just a three-day event and the company isn’t arranging marriage ceremonies on daily basis in the park. Meanwhile talking to The Times of Karachi, Omari said that they had just obtained the park on rent for three days that is not for a marriage ceremony but a festivity. “Even after spending billions of rupees on the development of these parks, these aren’t frequented by visitors,” he said adding that with such event they bring people out to such places.

”Arranging a marriage ceremony or opening a restaurant would be wrong,” he stressed and assured that all damages done to the park during the three-day festival would be repaired by the company. KMC’s DG Park Afaq Mirza wasn’t available for a comment.