ISLAMABAD: Scores of political figures, journalists, intellectuals and urban planners on Tuesday demanded the federal government devise a substantial and far-reaching policy with regards to informal settlements enshrining the constitutional right to housing of all citizens.

At a press conference at the National Press Club, various individuals joined the All-Pakistan Alliance for Katchi Abadis, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Awami Workers Party, Aurat March, National Commission for Justice and Peace and Alliance for Urban Rights to unveil a detailed set of written objections sent to the new CDA chairman demanding an end to the practice of alleged summary evictions and rejecting a proposed regulatory framework that the CDA submitted to the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) in the seminal case on katchi abadis ongoing since 2015.

Abid Hasan Minto, Afrasiab Khattak, Farhatullah Babar, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Munizae Jehangir, Shahzeb Jillani, Wusutullah Khan, Arif Hasan, Nadeemul Haque, Alia Amirali and others joined the main petitioner Dr Aasim Sajjad Akhtar in noting that the CDA had persistently failed to meet its constitutional obligations to provide adequate housing for low-income residents of Islamabad, whilst also repeatedly violating superior court stay orders that ban summary evictions. They said the CDA is bound even by the statutory obligations of its own 1960 ordinance which explicitly mentions the imperative of regularising slum areas.

The speakers asserted that the CDA had not conducted a comprehensive survey of katchi abadis and other informal settlements since 2002, during which time Islamabad’s population had tripled from 800,000 to almost 2.4 million.

Political figures, civil society activists demand end to practice of summary evictions

In a related vein, they said that CDA still only recognises six katchi abadis in the capital, when the federal government’s own National Housing Policy 2025 documented that there were over 60 katchi abadis in Islamabad, with a total population of up to 500,000.

They stated that CDA’s point of view about katchi abadis ‘illegal encroachments’ is a convenient cover for its elitist bias, given the fact that many gated housing schemes are patently illegal.

It has also been recently reported that recreational facilities like the Gun and Country Club and the Islamabad Club were given all sorts of concessions and effectively exempted from legal obligation.

Rana Shahbaz of the Anjuman Rehribaan highlighted how the CDA does not even spare street vendors, regularly confiscating their wares, destroying their carts and jailing them for petty offences.

The speakers expressed grave concern about the devastation of local ecologies due to development policy of the CDA. Alongside the destruction of katchi abadis as well as historic model villages like Saidpur, Malpur and Dhok Talyan, the speakers said that CDA and the present government had also devastated local ecologies, chopping down thousands of trees despite court orders, and also wreaking havoc on air quality through unrestrained construction.

They warned of contempt of court petitions if the CDA continued violating stay orders. They demanded an immediate end to the demolitions of slums.

It is relevant to note here that the CDA recently completely demolished Muslim Colony Bari Imam and slightly conducted an operation at Shapar Colony G-7.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2026