CDA’s court submission makes no proposal regarding resettlement of evicted slum residents PHOTO: FILE
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) in a submission before the Supreme Court on Tuesday has requested permission to continue its drive against slums in the city, and sought lifting of the court’s restraining order.
In its reply, the CDA fails to offer any proposals regarding the resettlement of slum residents it has already evicted.
The top court, while hearing a constitutional petition filed by former residents of the now razed I-11 katchi abadi and the Awami Workers Party on August 26, restrained the civic agency from taking adverse action against slum dwellers.
Now the CDA has pleaded before the apex court to vacate this restraining order and allow it to carry out action against all illegal slums.
On the issue of resettlement, the civic agency, while submitting its 11-page reply in the apex court in the katchi abadi case stated that the CDA had no such provision in the CDA Ordinance 1960, for the regulation of illegal settlements.
The CDA, however recommended that the Ministry of Housing and the National Housing Foundation may consider necessary measures for the resettlement of illegal occupants of these squatters, and this could be done by allocation of a special amount in the budget for acquisition of land at suitable locations, not necessarily in the federal capital.
The reply was submitted by CDA Planning Wing Director Zafar Iqbal Zafar.
The CDA submission further reads that if those illegal settlements were not removed, state land would be encroached upon by illegal occupiers as well as well as land grabbers, and that would result in grave and systematic violation of the Islamabad Master Plan and the city’s layout.
The civic agency also expressed its apprehension that most of the slums were under the occupation of people who moved from other parts of the country, and in view of the prevailing law and order situation, those illegal, undocumented, and unplanned settlements might cause a security problem.
The reply further stated that Islamabad was the ninth largest city in the country as its population had grown from 10,000 in 1951 to 1.3 million in 2012, adding that the twin cities were growing at a rate of more than four per cent per annum, which is higher than the national average, due to significant migration.
The CDA claims that at the present growth rate, the population of Islamabad would increase to seven million in the next 20 years.
The reply said that 10 slums were recognised by the CDA in December 1995, and it was also decided that land owning agencies should enforce existing anti-encroachment laws as far as any future attempts at encroachment are concerned.
On the settlement in I-11, the CDA said that that slum emerged due to the influx of a large number of Afghan refugees.
Likewise, it was stated that the residents of I-11 slum could not claim alternate plots, adding that certain residents of the slums were involved in selling and renting of their houses without lawful authority.
The CDA in its reply said that the slums in G-7-1 and G-7-3 would be redeveloped in the first phase and the process would be completed in three years.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 13th, 2016.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ