Alliance warns against renewed evictions from Islamabad katchi abadis

ISLAMABAD: A coalition of rights, political and social organisations on Monday voiced concern over what it said could be a fresh round of evictions in Islamabad’s katchi abadis, warning that continued demolitions of informal settlements would deepen hardship for low-income residents in the capital.

After an emergency meeting attended by representatives of the All-Pakistan Alliance for Katchi Abadis, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the Awami Workers Party, the National Commission for Justice and Peace and other groups, participants issued a joint statement expressing alarm over the situation. Community leaders from Allama Iqbal Colony, Rimsha Colony, Dhobi Ghat G-6/2, Muslim Colony, I-9 katchi abadi, I-10 katchi abadi and Muzaffar Colony were also present.

The alliance said the demolitions had already rendered 50,000 working-class residents in Islamabad homeless and cautioned that any continuation of such action would create a wider social crisis. It also urged the Supreme Court and the Federal Constitutional Court to take notice of what it described as repeated breaches of stay orders related to evictions.

Questions over official response

Participants at the meeting questioned why Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, whom they said had intervened to stop evictions at the elite residential complex One Constitution Avenue, had not ordered a similar halt in the case of katchi abadis and older villages in Islamabad. They said this reflected official indifference to the difficulties faced by the city’s working poor.

According to the joint statement, if the higher judiciary and the political leadership continued to ignore the suffering of low-income residents, it would amount to a signal that the Capital Development Authority’s approach had backing at the highest levels. The participants further said successive governments and the CDA had repeatedly failed to acknowledge their inability to meet the housing needs of lower-income groups, a shortcoming they said had contributed to the expansion of katchi abadis.

Appeal to parliamentarians

The alliance also called on members of the National Assembly and Senate to urgently oppose demolitions. It said the issue went beyond housing and touched on democratic representation, arguing that katchi abadi residents formed a major voting bloc in Islamabad. The participants said that if elected representatives who had benefited from these votes did not support such communities, it would undermine the basis of democratic legitimacy.

Separately, CDA spokesperson Shahid Kiani said the authority had not served eviction notices on residents of katchi abadis in Islamabad. He said the ongoing enforcement campaign in the capital was directed only at unlawful construction.

"CDA has not issued any eviction notice to the residents of katchi abadis in Islamabad. The CDA’s current enforcement drive is going on across Islamabad and is strictly focused on illegal construction," he said in a statement.