ISLAMABAD: Representatives from katchi abadis on Friday requested the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to refrain from summary evictions in the wake of the construction being carried out on the 10th and 11th avenues and that residents of the area should be taken on board for workable solutions.
The representatives called on member planning Waseem Hayat Bajwa and shared their concerns with him.
Construction on 10th Avenue project was started last year and now the CDA was all set to commence work on 11th Avenue.
There are a small number of slum houses in the alignment of 11th Avenue, however, there was a huge settlement, called Rimsha Colony in the alignment path of 10th Avenue. For construction of the road, the CDA will have to remove this settlement.
Planning wing vows to carry out fresh surveys of informal settlements
During the said meeting, it was discussed that there should be no forced eviction rather there should be a workable solution.
After the meeting, Katchi Abadi Alliance chairperson Dr Aasim Sajjad, through a press release, said: “The delegation also expressed its concern with the member planning about the construction of thoroughfares like 10th and 11th avenues which have already uprooted many working class settlements and threatened big katchi abadis like Rimsha Colony.
They said ‘development’ could not be a pretext for the demolition of working people’s homes and that the Katchi Abadi Alliance was willing to work with the CDA to find workable solutions but would resist if summary evictions continued to be the authorities’ preferred method.
The delegation reminded the member planning that the Supreme Court had in any case issued a stay order on summary evictions in the 2015 case that followed the demolition of I-11 katchi abadi.
The press release further said that katchi abadi representatives of various settlements across Islamabad received guarantees on Friday from the member planning (CDA) that they would not be subjected to summary evictions as per constitutional provisions for every Pakistani citizen to be guaranteed the right to shelter.
According to a press release, the CDA’s planning wing also acknowledged that it had not updated its records on katchi abadis in the federal capital since 2002, vowing to carry out fresh surveys of all informal settlements in the capital so as to ensure a humane response to the structural problem of low-income housing in Islamabad.
Katchi Abadi Alliance chairperson Dr Aasim Sajjad said that summary evictions have no place in civilised society and working class residents of the federal capital are regularly subjected to demolitions of their homes and livelihoods in the name of clearing “encroachments”. However, rich and powerful land grabbers, including state functionaries, operate with complete impunity, while a katchi abadi resident has to make under-the-table payments to CDA, Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) and other government department functionaries for perfectly legitimate matters like installation of electricity and gas meters, he alleged.
Dr Aasim said this class apartheid is unacceptable and katchi abadi residents have as much right to the city as property developers and residents of elite neighbourhoods. Ayesha Shahid of the Katchi Abadi Alliance said that there must be a shift in the long-term planning paradigm of the CDA so that working class residents are guaranteed affordable housing, particularly given the huge in-migration that is exacerbating low-income housing shortage. She appealed to the CDA member planning to allocate non-marketable land for low-income settlements in all zones of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and also ensure that gated housing schemes reserve a certain percentage of plots for the working poor.
Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2023