ISLAMABAD: Representatives of slums of the capital city on Thursday appealed to the Supreme Court to uphold their constitutional right to housing and not vacate a stay order that has been in place against their summary evictions since 2015.

Addressing a press conference organised by the Awami Workers Party (AWP), whose leaders filed the original petition, AWP leaders and representatives of slums stated that the apex court had reopened the case in early January after 10 years. They said that opening of this case had generated a great deal of anxiety amongst kutchi abadi dwellers in Islamabad and all other metropolitan centres of the country.

Lead petitioner and AWP leader Aasim Sajjad said the original petition in the SC was filed in July 2015 when the CDA and then PML-N government were arbitrarily bulldozing slums. The biggest eviction took place on July 31, 2015 in I-11 when a settlement of more than 20,000 people was demolished after which the Supreme Court heard the petition and issued a stay order against any further summary evictions, he said.

Mr Sajjad added that the court had instructed the CDA as well as the federal government to demonstrate that it had a viable plan to deal with the housing demands of low-income segments of the urban population. But in the intervening decade, Islamabad and other big cities in the country have become increasingly hostage to real estate developers, speculators and land grabbers, meaning that the shortfall of housing for the urban poor has only worsened and this is why kutchi abadis continue to come into being.

He demanded that the SC hold the authorities to account until and unless a fundamental change takes place in the urban planning paradigm.

Representatives of kutchi abadis in I-9, I-10, H9, G-11, F-12, G-7, G-8 and many others highlighted the daily indignities that they were allegedly subjected to by the CDA, police and other law enforcement agencies. They said the SC stay order had at least provided them some relief from the incessant threat of eviction, and that they were now extremely concerned that this relative security would soon be removed.

They warned the law was increasingly seen as oppressive, because it was in the name of the law and so-called ‘anti-encroachment’ drives that kutchi abadis, rehri walas and many other working class homes and livelihoods were destroyed.

Meanwhile, they said the biggest and most powerful land grabbers were completely exempt from any accountability for their actions.

This is why, they said, ordinary working people are almost completely disillusioned with slogans such as the ‘rule of law’ because in practice the law provides no relief to those without money and influence.

The speakers said if the state is not willing to provide affordable housing to working people it should not deprive them of the kutchi abadis that they had constructed through their own labour and without any support from the authorities.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2025