IHC issues stay order against CDA's operations in Muslim colony

Counsel tells court that authorities are demolishing houses without prior notice or intimation, calls it unjustified

Islamabad High Court has ordered the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to halt its operation in the Muslim Colony katchi abadi. The court has issued a notice to the CDA and sought a reply by December 16.

During the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel argued that thousands of people are living in the katchi abadi, which forms part of the Bari Imam area and has been in existence since 1960. The lawyer said the Supreme Court (SC) had already directed authorities to develop a mechanism for handling katchi abadis, adding that Muslim Colony includes the localities of Noor Pur and Bari Imam.

The Awami Workers Party filed a petition in the SC in July 2015, when the CDA and then Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz bulldozed a settlement of more than 20,000 Pashtun workers in I-11. The SC not only entertained this petition but also issued a stay order against any further summary evictions.

The AWP has stated that the court had instructed the CDA as well as the federal government to demonstrate that it had a viable plan to deal with the housing demands of low-income segments of the urban population, but in the intervening decade, Islamabad and other big cities in the country have become increasingly hostage to real estate developers, speculators, and land grabbers.

The counsel told the court that the CDA was demolishing houses without prior notice or intimation, calling the operation unjustified and requesting the court to stop it. Justice Raja Inam Amin Minhas subsequently ordered the CDA to halt the operation.

Read: Katchi abadi residents invoke constitutional right to housing amid CDA crackdown

The hearing has been adjourned until December 16.

Representatives of dozens of katchi abadis, street vendors, and other working-class organisations 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 superior courts to uphold their constitutional right to housing and livelihoods.

Leaders of the Awami Workers Party, All-Pakistan Katchi Abadi Alliance, and Anjuman Rehribaan appealed to the SC and newly created Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) to uphold the stay order given by the SC in 2015 in response to a constitutional petition filed by the AWP that put a moratorium on summary evictions.

Read more: Karachi tea sellers, fast food vendors protest against anti-encroachment drive

AWP leader Alia Amirali said that the CDA and ICT have recently intensified so-called 'anti-encroachment operations' against both a host of working-class homes as well as street vendors, informal hoteliers, and others, whilst giving free license to big real estate moguls and big businessmen to build illegal housing schemes and commercial plazas.

She has stated that this brazen class war goes against all of the original legal injunctions and planning principles of the CDA ordinance, and that the Master Plan has become a complete travesty. She noted that an officer has been brought in from Lahore to spearhead the CDA's enforcement division and its anti-poor eviction drive in complete contravention of all rules.