Operation in illegal slum: Who will lead?

ICT, CDA administrations passing buck, call slums ‘tricky’ subject.

ISLAMABAD:

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administrations are on the horns of a dilemma as to who will lead an operation against an illegal slum in the capital.

The slum in Sector I-11, known locally as the ‘Afghan Basti’, has put the CDA and ICT administrations between a rock and a hard place after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued an order to evict the residents within a month.

On February 7, the IHC was informed by Interior Ministry Additional Secretary Hamid Ali Khan that he supervised a successful operation in 2006 to remove the illegal slum. However, the same area was populated again a few days later.

Upon hearing this, IHC Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui gave him one month to uproot the slum once again.

Recently, representatives of the ICT administration and the CDA held a few meetings to come up with a way to implement the court order. However, as far as carrying out the operation is concerned, both agencies are passing the buck.

When contacted, Chief Commissioner Islamabad Jawad Paul said, “The CDA is solely responsible for removing all sorts of encroachments within its municipal limits. Thus, preparing a plan of action rests with it.”

However, Paul made it clear that if the CDA needed assistance, the ICT administration would extend help.

On the other hand, CDA Planning Member Waseem Ahmad Khan, who attended a related meeting held at the office of chief commissioner Islamabad last week, said that the ICT administration had a major role to play in the operation.

He said that slums are a tricky subject, while adding that the CDA Estate Management Wing was preparing a plan with the ICT Administration to deal with illegal slums in the capital.

“The plan is not specific to the Sector I-11 slum. It deals with all the katchi abadis,” Khan said.

CDA Enforcement Director Muhammad Iqbal says that it was the collective responsibility of the ICT Administration, the CDA and the police to deal with the issue. “Only collective efforts will yield positive results,” Iqbal said.

Interestingly, in 2013 a comprehensively plan titled “Aman, Salamati Aur Behtri”, which aimed to remove the Sector I-11 slum, flopped after the ICT administration backed out at the eleventh hour. At the time, the CDA Enforcement Wing team found itself in the fire when the Islamabad Police and the ICT Administration failed to show up. Fearing possible backlash, the CDA called off the operation and blamed the ICT Administration for the embarrassing situation.

A few days before that debacle, the CDA in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had conducted a survey of the Afghan Basti and compiled a list that stated 7,995 individuals from 864 families lived in the slum.

Out of the 864 families, only 114 families were registered Afghan refugees, while the rest were either internally-displaced persons from the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas or illegal immigrants.

The survey had revealed that a large number of the illegal settlers worked at the nearby fruit and vegetable market.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2014.