Policemen refuse to vacate flats
The residential flats were temporarily provided to the Anti-Riot Squad of Islamabad police and Punjab Constabulary officials in 2007 when they were called in to help Islamabad administration maintain law and order in the pre and post Lal Masjid military-operation days.
However a majority of the anti-riot police officials of Islamabad police refused to vacate the flats after their job was done. Later, they were also joined by constables and Assistant Sub-Inspectors who moved in with their families. A total of 92 police officials are currently residing in more than 150 flats.
The police officials said that they will not vacate the flats until alternative residence is provided to them.
When pressed by police authorities to vacate the flats, the occupant police officials filed a petition in the Lahore High Court (Rawalpindi Bench) against their seniors for asking them to vacate their present shelters. The high court issued a stay order protecting the occupants from expulsion. The next hearing of the case is set for October 16, 2010.
Neither Ministry of Housing nor the Islamabad Police can take any action against them until the high court makes a final decision.
Meanwhile, police have asked the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to build barracks for bachelor police officials in Police Lines Headquarters.
“The CDA has already built a barrack which only requires finishing, but it cannot be used for housing police officials,” said Superintendent of Police (Headquarters) Ashfaq Ahmed. “A housing scheme for police has also been planned which is yet to be formally launched,” he added.
Ahmed said the process of building new barracks and the subsequent housing scheme will provide a substantial solution for the housing problems that police officials face. However these solutions, he feared, would take time. Until then, he confessed, the authorities had no alternative solution to offer, not in the foreseeable future at least.
An official in the Ministry of Interior, on the condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that the ministry had agreed to provide at least one of the four-stories of the building to police officials until they were given alternative official residences.
Since the occupation, the Ministry of Housing has been pursuing Islamabad Police to get the flats vacated. “The police high-ups were not in favour of vacating the flats and played a double game with the Housing Ministry,” the official added.
After the officials refused to vacate the flats, their seniors directed police headquarters not to pressurise the occupants.
The intention was to strengthen their bargaining position on the proposed residential scheme for police and get the funds for the scheme released as early as possible, claimed an official of police on conditions of anonymity.
“We can not find affordable residence in the city except for the outskirts and commuting from there everyday is a nuisance,” said a police constable who lives in one of the flats.
The Ministry of Housing sought help from Ministry of Interior to get the flats vacated, but the occupants got a stay order from the high court. In the move, they at least won a portion of the four-storey building, to which the Housing Ministry has yet to give its formal consent. Police officials living in the flats said that they were not the lone occupants- some CDA officials were also occupying more than 50 flats in the building.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 22nd, 2010.
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