ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Friday decided to postpone the grand operation against 12 katchi abadis, which was scheduled to start on March 24, as it failed to get a nod from the Ministry of Interior.

The member estate, Shaista Sohail, held a meeting with officials of the interior ministry on Friday evening during which she was informed that the Intelligence Bureau (IB) had cautioned against launching the operation to remove 12 slums.

The agency feared that the move might invite unwarranted troubles in the already volatile security situation.

Similarly, the Islamabad administration also expressed reluctance to support the operation saying the police were already stretched.

“Besides, we have an upcoming polio campaign and nobody can risk disturbing it because Pakistan is already under international observation in this regard,” said a senior official of the ICT administration.

The estate wing of the CDA had almost finalised arrangements to launch the operation from the Afghan Basti (I-11) and all available human resources were called to support the enforcement staff.

“They had sought the support from the environment wing as there were a large number of gardeners and other supporting staff there to help the enforcement wing,” said an official of the environment wing.

However, the authorities had not sought any support from the sanitation department, as a majority of the workers in the department or their friends and relatives lived in the katchi abadis.

The member estate had called around 2,000 workers to the CDA head office after working hours and was scheduled to address them. “But a call for an urgent meeting compelled her to leave for the interior ministry where the decision to postpone the operation was conveyed to her,” a CDA official said.

Though not announced officially, the news reached the slum dwellers who spent Friday evening discussing the developing scenario.

The All-Pakistan Alliance for Katchi Abadis held meetings with the representatives of various slums and it was decided that they would continue building pressure on the government.

“It (postponement of the operation) is a good decision,” said spokesman for the Alliance, Ammar Rasheed. “But the most important things is that there has to be a long-term solution to this problem.”

The CDA had tried to launch the operation after the Islamabad High Court issued a directive in February to remove all the katchi abadis.

Earlier in the day, the dwellers of the 12 slums held a protest rally in Maskeen Colony, G-8/4, and warned that if their leaders were arrested, the residents of the katchi abadis would also offer court arrest.

To dispel the impression that Afghans nationals were living in the I-11 katchi abadi and they can be a threat to the peace of the city, both Muslim and Christian dwellers announced that they would also resist the operation.

The rally was supported by minority leader J. Salik, the All-Pakistan Katchi Abadi Alliance and the Awami Workers Party (AWP).

Speakers on the occasion criticised the eviction plan and said the government was making the poor people a scapegoat by calling them terrorists and criminals.

President AWP Dr Aasim Sajjad Akhtar said the rulers did not consider the katchi abadi residents as equal citizens of Pakistan.

“Time has come to peacefully resist the eviction move through a united front because the rulers would attempt to divide the katchi abadis by dividing them on the basis of religion,” he said.

Mr Salik said the katchi abadi residents were equal citizens of Pakistan and had the constitutional right to shelter. “If any of the katchi abadis is demolished, thousands of people will be deprived of their abodes and they will start a jail bharo tehreek,” he warned.