Daily Times

The CDA’s current plan to bulldoze the slums, load the residents onto trucks and take them ‘back’ to their places of origin sounds despicable, illegal and morally inexcusable. Mass evictions are a remarkably old school policy when compared to current international standards

Islamabad is the only planned city in Pakistan. A master plan was conceived by a Greek town planner’s firm of architects, Konstantinos Apostolos Doxiadis, based on a grid plan and it included all the current sectors consisting of four subsectors each. The arrangement included residential areas, commercial areas, schools and hospitals etc. for each subsector. For some odd reason that firm did not most likely care or perhaps find it important enough at that time to map an area for quarters for people working as cleaners, janitors, sanitary workers, carpenters, labourers etc. but, for obvious reasons, their presence was the essence of the city. In 1960, when Islamabad was constructed as the capital, these workers would come to work in the city from Rawalpindi. With time, as Islamabad started expanding, there came a need of more ‘helpers’ and it became hard for them to afford their commute to Islamabad every day. That is when they started developing kachi abaadis (slums) in the capital of Pakistan. Since Islamabad had only two sectors back then, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) did not prevent the slums from being developed. The CDA recognised their need to live in the places that were vacant back then and did not make an effort to stop them. Ultimately, this became routine and different people made use of this idea by grabbing the lands and selling to poor people on a nominal amount to establish kachi abaadis. The first two slums in Islamabad were established in F-6 and F-7, which were sooner recognised by the CDA as legalised slums.
Derived from the NCPC profiling of katchi abaadis, the CDA has registered 11 kachi abaadis in different locations of Islamabad but, in actuality, there are a total of 34 kachi abaadis in the centre as well as peripheries of Islamabad. They have been provided with electricity and gas as well. Kachi abaadi dwellers come from all over the country. A majority of the population is comprised of the Christian community originating from central Punjab. The number of Punjabi communities like Potoharies, Sheiks, Awans and others has jointly constituted the population of kachi abaadis in Islamabad. Afghan refugees, Pakhtuns from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and some of the families from Balochistan are also part of the population. Almost each family member, unfortunately even including children, earns for their families but their monthly income is very low.
Understanding the situation, there are some questions that arise. On what criteria were the slums legalised as compared to the ones that are considered illegal? Why did the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) provide electricity and gas to slums without confirming the status of the property? Why was the CDA not aware of the new slums being developed and, if they were, why did they not stop them at that time?
The issue has a long recurring history but the recent episode escalated this February when the Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued an order for the removal of “illegal settlements” from Islamabad. Surveys were conducted, eviction notices were issued and search operations were launched in the katchi abaadis. Bureaucrats, politicians and the judiciary have joined hands to launch eviction drives that will affect over 100,000 residents of the katchi abaadis of Islamabad. This order has created much tension in the houses of the urban poor and their protests have also been stopped by the police with even rangers called to stop the poor from complaining. The officials claim that the 30-odd katchi abaadis of Islamabad are illegal settlements that have emerged due to encroachments on private and public land, and that these abadis harbour criminals and terrorists. Well criminals and terrorists have been found living in huge compounds too but it is evidently not fair to close down the entire colony for it.
The police should of course be used to addressing such issues. About the legality of these slums, several constitutional provisions, laws and policies deal with them, including provincial katchi abaadi acts, the National Housing Policy and the National Katchi Abaadi Policy of 2001. According to these documents, katchi abaadis are “informal settlements comprising more than 40 houses”, which can be registered and regularised based on when they were built. The preferred official policy is to improve the slums where they are but if any slum is to be removed for a particular reason, which can only be done after working out a detailed resettlement plan in consultation with the residents. In 2006, the CDA did propose the plan of developing a colony with three story buildings in the apparently legalised slums including French Colony but, due to financial restraints and some resistance from the colony people, it was never implemented.
The right to housing or shelter is recognised universally as one of the basic human rights. Article 25 of the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights proclaims and renders it mandatory for the member countries that they should provide their citizens with adequate housing. More importantly, the constitution of Pakistan has also incorporated clauses dealing with the right to shelter and adequate housing to its citizens in line with international commitments. Article 38 (D) makes the state responsible for providing basic necessities of life to the citizens such as food, clothing, housing, education and health irrespective of sex, caste, creed or race.
The CDA’s current plan to bulldoze the slums, load the residents onto trucks and take them ‘back’ to their places of origin sounds despicable, illegal and morally inexcusable. Mass evictions are a remarkably old school policy when compared to current international standards and practices for dealing with urban slums. Present-day recommendations from international organisations, from the World Bank to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and UN-HABITAT, strongly reject forced expulsion and discourage resettlement especially when it is done without the consent of slum dwellers.
In order to efficiently tackle the issues behind informal settlements and the necessity of providing such workers with a place to live, the government must avoid forced eviction and instead plan a combination of regularisation and slum upgrading, participatory resettlement and public housing projects. The CDA should competently allocate a budget for the development of the recognised slums. If it has a reason to remove the illegal slums, then it is the state’s responsibility to provide them with housing schemes of a minimal amount, preferably apartments saving the space, providing them with proper sanitation system, places of entertainment, health units etc.

The writer works in the development sector