Projects to policy: Establishing contact with the communities

KARACHI: The first policy decision for providing an institutional basis within a policy framework context to the issue of katchi abadis came in 1972, when the Federal Government initiated the Katchi Abadis Improvement and Regularization Program (KAIRP).

KAIRP aimed to regularise 2,320 katchi abadis across the country, with a total population of 5.5 million. As a consequence the Sindh Katchi Abadi Authority (SKAA) got constituted.

SKAA had been mandated with implementing the KAIRP in Sindh and to notify, regularise and upgrade all existing katchi abadis in the province within five years (from 1987 till 1992). But even five years after its creation, SKAA had not issued one single lease. However, a revision in approach and strategy was adopted, based on lessons learnt from successes in informal housing, that made a huge difference and in less than eight months, SKAA was able to self-finance for the first time in its history. Unfortunately, the problem of slums and further illegal settlements through pure land grab continue even now.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2013.