The lawyer tells the court that the authorities are demolishing houses without prior notice or summons and considers it unjustified.
Life goes on in Muslim Colony, a slum near the Prime Minister House and the Presidency: PHOTO: MUDASSAR RAJA
The Islamabad High Court has ordered the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to stop its operations in the Muslim colony of Katchi Abadi. The court issued notice to the CDA and sought a response by December 16.
During the hearing, the petitioner’s lawyer argued that thousands of people live in katchi abadi, which is part of the Bari Imam area and has been in existence since 1960. The lawyer said the Supreme Court (SC) had already directed the authorities to develop a mechanism to manage the katchi abadis, adding that the Muslim colony includes Noor Pur and Bari Imam localities.
The Awami Workers Party petitioned the SC in July 2015, when the CDA and then the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz bulldozed a settlement of more than 20,000 Pashtun workers on I-11. The SC not only considered this petition but also issued a stay order against any further summary eviction.
The AWP has stated that the court had ordered the CDA and the federal government to show that it had a viable plan to address the housing demands of the low-income segments of the urban population, but in the intervening decade, Islamabad and other big cities in the country have increasingly become hostages to real estate developers, speculators and land grabbers.
The lawyer told the court that the CDA was demolishing houses without prior notice or summons, terming the operation as unjustified and asking the court to stop it. Later, Justice Raja Inam Amin Minhas ordered the CDA to stop the operation.
Read: Katchi Abadi residents invoke constitutional right to housing amid CDA crackdown
The hearing was adjourned until December 16.
Representatives of dozens 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 wave of evictions launched by the CDA in recent weeks and had appealed to the higher courts to uphold their constitutional right to housing and livelihood.
Awami Workers Party, All Pakistan Alliance leaders Katchi Abadi and Anjuman Rehribaan appealed to the SC and the newly created Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) to uphold the stay order issued by the SC in 2015 in response to a constitutional petition filed by the AWP establishing a moratorium on summary evictions.
Read more: Karachi tea sellers, fast food vendors protest against anti-invasion drive
AWP leader Alia Amirali said the CDA and ICT have recently intensified so-called ‘anti-encroachment operations’ against a large number of working class households as well as street vendors, informal hoteliers and others, while giving free license to big real estate tycoons and big businessmen to build illegal housing projects and shopping plazas.
She has stated that this blatant class warfare goes against all legal mandates and original planning principles of the CDA ordinance, and that the Master Plan has become a complete farce. He noted that an officer was brought in from Lahore to head the CDA’s law enforcement division and its eviction drive against the poor, in total contravention of all rules.
