Honour your promise: Katchi abadi residents demand ownership rights

The protesters warned that if their demand was not acceded to, they would be constrained to besiege the CM House


Our Correspondent January 09, 2016
The protesters warned that if their demand was not acceded to, they would be constrained to besiege the CM House. PHOTO: FILE

FAISALABAD: Scores of residents of squatter settlement near Phatak No 8 staged a protest demonstration on Saturday, claiming that the government was not giving them ownership rights after having promised it.

Carrying banners and placards, the protesters gathered at Zila Council Chowk and staged a sit-in there.

Talking to newsmen, Zameer Nasir, one of the protesters, said he had been born at the katchi abadi. Now, he said, the government was trying to evict him and scores of families, saying they were encroaching on state land.

He said in 2009, the district administration had launched a campaign across the district to retrieve state land from encroachers.

He said after a survey, the district administration had decided to give proprietary rights to residents of the katchi abadi as they had been living there for decades.

“Officials of the district administration promised us to give us ownership rights in 2009 but this promise has not been honoured,” he said. “Now there is panic among the residents as the district administration has started an anti-encroachment drive.”

“Where will we go if we are evicted from here?” said Huma Athar, another resident of the katchi abadi.

The protesters warned that if their demand was not acceded to, they would be constrained to besiege the Chief Minister House in Lahore soon.

The demonstrators chanted slogans against the district administration, urging the chief minister to take notice of the situation.

They also blocked University Road during the protest, suspending traffic for several hours. Later, a police team reached the spot and pacified the protestors by assuring them that their issue would be taken up by district authorities and resolved soon.

The protesters dispersed from the scene peacefully on receiving this assurance from the police officials. .

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10th, 2016.

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