Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Katchi abadis are the real victims of violations of human rights in the federal capital.

The Christian community constitutes 90 per cent of the population of katchi abadis and lack of basic amenities in these slums has marginalised the population into second rate citizens.

The nexus of CDA, IESCO, Police and other federal departments have given birth to these Katchi abadis which have turned into heaps of garbage, home to epidemics and dens of gamblers being not accorded official status of settlements.

It is strange to note that all the inmates of these abadis are holding National Identity Cards (NICs) issued by NADRA and they are enlisted in electoral lists despite non awarding of any official status to these slums by the government.

The dwellers of these abadis while talking to the Daily Times during a survey said that they were being treated as inmates of a ghetto in these slums as no basic amenity was provided to them and they had to pay monthly to IESCO, CDA and other departments for availing any facility.

One Boota Masih said: “No facility is available in this abadi to us and even we stand deprived of basic facilities like electricity, water and health.

Nemat Masih said all the politicians undertake frequent visits of these katchiabadis during election days and pledges are made to provide electricity and we are driven into the world of dreams but as soon as election comes to end, our dreams also leave us forsaken in the fantasies of day dreaming. We then wait for the next election but the next election also makes no difference to our plight as it is left at the mercy of politicians who are always merciless in affording any facility to us.

“There is a chain of schools operating in this are but we cannot send our children in their proper uniform therein as we cannot iron their clothes for want of electricity. Those who go to school are enlisted in dropouts as they cannot read their books of syllabus at night for lack of electricity facility and they can not prepare for their examination and are declared unsuccessful on the day of announcement of results”.

“We cannot even buy candles due to poverty. We are always in pursuit of collecting firewood to light a fire due to non availability of gas”, he lamented.

Another resident Mushtaq said that “No community centre or place is provided to us wherein we could assemble for sharing moments of delight and grief”.

Ilyas Masih said that their place of worship is also built with mud bricks which they have raised on the basis of self help. “The government is not providing any assistance to us. We are facing acute shortage of drinking water and now some private agency has installed tube wells which are not enough to cater to our water requirements. Some among them have gone dysfunctional.”

The dwellers of these katchiabadis are forced to pay monthly to federal departments like CDA, IESCO and others for availing electricity and gas facilities. They have been provided illegal connections of electricity and they have to pay for this facility on a monthly basis to the corrupt elements of IESCO. The CDA officials also grab a sizable amount from them against providing water and other facilities to them.

All the Katchiabadis are located around seasonal nullahs and the fatal epidemics make way to these abadis from these nullahs. The ratio of spreading of epidemics in these slums is higher than the other areas in the wake of insufficient medical facilities.

Only two hospitals are functioning in the Federal Capital and the residents of these abadis are denied medical facilities in these hospitals as well.