Reclaiming encroached land

Authorities often feel the impulse to harry and harass those living on the margins of society. Slum dwellers constitute that class of the populace who find themselves at the receiving end when such a fancy is aroused. When bulldozers arrive to mount a demolition mission, they inevitably scare the daylights out of the people living in shanty towns. This was precisely what happened when Islamabad’s civic agency recently demolished at least three katchi abadis before its residents could find time to remove their belongings to an alternative location. The capital city administration may have a valid, legal case to evict the people from the public land, but one cannot find justification in the manner the operation was executed with utter ruthlessness. The poor who were driven out of their dilapidated structures, one can well imagine, must have found refuge under the open sky, exposed to the elements.

This was bound to goad the poor squatters into public protest, as it did recently, when hundreds of slum dwellers from across Islamabad rallied against the forced eviction drive initiated by the city administration. Prominent rights activist and former federal minister J Salik made some apt observations when addressing the crowd. One could not agree with him more when he said that Pakistan’s rulers have been using slum dwellers as voting constituencies and menial labour, and then callously razing to the ground their homes without providing any compensation or a resettlement plan.

On its part, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) says the protests will not hinder the authority from continuing the drive to retrieve encroached land. Granted that reclaiming public land from encroachers carries the weight of law, but there is a human angle which must not be lost sight of. The authorities should tackle the matter with a humane approach and keep the worries and woes of the poor in mind who cannot afford housing. An alternative settlement plan must be in place before authorities send bulldozers to the katchi abadis.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 2^nd, 2014.

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