The lawyer tells the court that the authorities are demolishing houses without prior notice or hint, calling it unjustified
Life goes on in the Muslim Colony, a slum near PM House and the Presidency: PHOTO: MUDASSAR RAJA
The Islamabad High Court has ordered the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to halt its operation in the Muslim colony of katchi abadi. The court has issued a notice to the CDA and requested a response by December 16.
During the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel argued that thousands of people live in katchi abadis, which form part of the Bari Imam area and have been in existence since 1960. The lawyer said the Supreme Court (SC) had already asked the authorities to develop a mechanism to deal with katchi abadis, adding that Muslim Colony of Imamor Pur and Bari Colony comprise the localities.
Awami Workers Party submitted a petition to SC in July 2015 when CDA and then Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz bulldozed a settlement of more than 20,000 Pashtun workers in I-11. The SC not only entertained this petition but also issued a stay order against any further summary stay.
The AWP has stated that the court had directed the CDA as well as the federal government to demonstrate that it had a viable plan to address the housing demands of low-income segments of the urban population, but in the intervening decade, Islamabad and other major cities in the country have increasingly become hostages to property developers, speculators and land grabbers.
The lawyer told the court that the CDA was in the process of demolishing houses without prior notice or intimation, calling the operation unjustified and requested the court to stop it. Justice Raja Inam Amin Minhas subsequently ordered the CDA to halt the operation.
Read: Katchi abadi residents invoke constitutional right to housing amid CDA crackdown
The hearing is adjourned until 16 December.
Representatives of scores of katchi abadis, street vendors and other working class organizations from across the federal capital recently held a press conference on December 4 at the National Press Club to demand an end to the spate of evictions launched by the CDA in recent weeks and had appealed to the high courts to uphold their constitutional right to housing and livelihood.
Leaders of the Awami Workers Party, All-Pakistan Katchi Abadi Alliance and Anjuman Rehribaan appealed to the SC and the newly created Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) to uphold the stay order granted by the SC in 2015 in response to a constitutional challenge filed by the AWP that put a moratorium on summary dismissal.
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AWP leader Alia Amirali said the CDA and ICT have recently intensified the so-called ‘anti-encroachment operations’ against both a large number of working-class homes as well as street vendors, informal hoteliers and others, while giving free license to big real estate moguls and big businessmen to build illegal housing projects and commercial spaces.
She has stated that this brazen class war goes against all the original legal injunctions and planning principles of the CDA Ordinance and that the Master Plan has become a complete travesty. She noted that an officer has been brought in from Lahore to head the CDA’s enforcement wing and its anti-poor eviction drive in complete violation of all rules.
