ISLAMABAD, Aug 19: The All-Pakistan Alliance of Kutcha Abadis staged a protest demonstration here in France Colony in sector F-7/4 on Monday.

The demonstration was held against the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) defiance to the National Policy on Kutcha Abadis announced by President Gen Musharraf in January 2001.

The demonstrators were mostly the women and children.

Speaking on the occasion, the local organizer of the alliance, Saba Mubarak said though the France Colony residents were willing to shift their homes to some other location, the CDA was not providing them an alternative place. “This is against the decision of the federal cabinet that no evictions should take place without providing an alternative shelter to Kutcha Abadi residents.”

Present on this occasion was an Italian journalist, Paola Babos, who condemned the evictions. She said “the UN special rapporteur for the right to adequate housing has recently sent a protest letter to the government of Pakistan against the forced evictions that took place in Karachi due to the proposed Lyari Expressway.”

She was told by the representatives of the Alliance that the same UN official had also sent a letter to the government some two years ago demanding that evictions of Kutcha Abadis should be halted. “But, unfortunately, the government paid no heed to it.”

The chief organizer of the alliance asked the government to immediately stop the practice. She said the political parties should also make clear their stance on the issue. “If the evictions are not stopped, the Kutcha Abadis in Islamabad will protest en masse,” she warned.

She announced that a national convention of Kutcha Abadis was going to be held next month where the issue of forced evictions would be highlighted.