Resolution moved: Senate for removing slums from capital

ISLAMABAD: The Senate on Monday adopted a resolution and called on the government to address the issue of unauthorised slums in the federal capital.

The resolution was moved by Senator Tahir Hussain Mashhadi and unanimously adopted by the House. It proposed the government construct low cost housing units for the residents of slums.

“This House recommends that the government take necessary steps to do away with all the unauthorised slums in Islamabad and construct low cost housing units for residents of the same,” read the resolution adopted by the upper house of parliament.

Slums remain a sensitive issue in the capital owing to security issues on the one hand and humanitarian grounds on the other. In July 2015, the largest slum of Islamabad was raised in I-11 and drew the ire of civil society and humanitarian groups. They demanded alternative dwellings for evicted squatters. Similarly, a shanty town was demolished in I-10 by the CDA in August 2016.

The Supreme Court issued a stay order in 2015 on demolishing slums in the capital.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2016.