ISLAMABAD: Former residents of the demolished I-11 katchi abadi attended a public meeting and then a protest organised by the Awami Workers Party (AWP) in Tarnol’s Ittefaq Colony on Wednesday.

They called for the resettlement of those evicted from the katchi abbadi. The protests were held in connection with an ongoing case on the Supreme Court (SC) regarding slums and the right to housing. A number of children also attended the protest and held up signboards asking for their homes to be restored

The protesters said they were being made to move from house to house for several months and that their children had not been able to attend school in the time since the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) eviction operation on July 30, 2015.

They called on the Supreme Court to establish firm precedent against the practice of summary evictions to ensure poor people were never faced with a similar situation.

Speaking at the protest, AWP Punjab President Aasim Sajjad Akhtar said that it had been six months since the I-11 katchi abadi had been demolished and that its residents had been waiting for justice and restitution for their evictions since then.

He added that the Supreme Court had ruled that housing was a right of all Pakistanis and that the government had agreed and established a principle that informal settlements could not be demolished without first resettling their residents.

Elected councillor from UC-44 Bokra in Tarnol, Nasir Khan, said the residents of I-11 had been suffering for many reasons since they were evicted, from getting dragged through anti-terrorism courts, to getting arrested and having to move from house to house in search of affordable accommodation.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2016