Join us for the eighty-eighth session of LUMS Live: Dispossession for Development? Land Struggles in Contemporary Pakistan (PT 2).
November 25, 2021
Time:
5:30 pm
Facebook Live
The government of Pakistan has recently announced the Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project, which will displace and dispossess a large number of residents and landowners across the banks of River Ravi in the hopes of building a ‘world-class’ city the size of Lahore.
This session invites panelists to share their understanding of how this project is proceeding, the forces driving this project, the impacts that can be foreseen on ground, the challenges that are emerging for the residents and landowners, as well as the means of resistance being taken up. Panelists will also speak about larger trends that are contributing to urban change and the actors and instruments that enable it.
Hosted in collaboration with the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives (IDEAS), UKRI-GCRF (Re)Thinking the Off-Grid City, and the Mahbub ul Haq Research Centre (MHRC) as part of the I A Rahman Social Justice and Change Webinar Series 2021, the session will be moderated by Dr. Umair Javed.
Join us for this interesting conversation!
Date: Thursday, November 25, 2021
Time: 5:30 pm
About the Panelists
Mr. Tanveer Ahmad
Mr. Ahmad’s work covers many aspects of civic life such as urbanisation, population, development and environment. Over the last 11 years, he has worked with a number of mainstream media organisations and is now affiliated with the digital news media platform, Sujag. He holds Master’s degrees in Mass Communication and Urdu Literature.
Ms. Rabia Ezdi
Ms. Ezdi researches issues of urban development in Lahore, with a focus on the impacts of projects and planning approaches on low and lower-middle income groups in the city. She has a Master’s degree in Urban Development from Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Mr. Fahd Malik
Mr. Malik’s areas of expertise include public interest litigation, with a special focus on strategic environmental intervention. He has represented the affectees of various urban expansion projects undertaken in Punjab, most notably, the affectees of the Ravi Riverfront Project, Lahore elevated expressway, and the orange line. Mr. Malik also works on policy matters related to environmental laws and regulation and has conducted several training sessions of judicial officers sensitising them on issues related to climate change. He also conducts sensitization training of judicial officers, prosecutors, medico-legal and police officials for dealing with gender-based violence cases. At Praxis Legal, Mr. Malik provides a full-service civil dispute resolution practice. Mr. Malik also teaches law at his alma mater, LUMS.
Mr. Sajjad Warraich
Mr. Warraich has actively led protests against the forcible land accusation in the Ravi Riverfront Urban Project. A farmer by profession, he has drawn attention to the social and economic impacts of the project, and has been involved with advocacy efforts against the project on behalf of the community.
Dr. Umair Javed
Dr. Javed is an Assistant Professor of Political Sociology at LUMS and a fellow of the Mahbub ul Haq Research Centre. His doctoral research focused on politics and practices of accumulation, and labour relations in Pakistan's informal economy, with a specific focus on the retail-wholesale (bazaar) sector. His research interests span various aspects of political participation, socio-economic development, and urban public life in South Asia. His academic work has been published in Economic and Political Weekly, Current History, and Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy. He has also contributed book chapters to volumes published by Routledge, Cambridge University Press, and the Australian National University Press. He has a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
