Large-scale demolition: Officials swoop in to claim WASA land without prior notice

‘In his first tenure, Nawaz Sharif promised us that no one would demolish our houses’.

LAHORE:

At least 30 houses of a katchi abadi in Samanabad Town were demolished without prior notice or compensation to the inhabitants on Thursday morning, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Officials of the Samanabad Town municipality and the Water and Sanitation Agency, along with police from Sherakot, Gulshan-i-Ravi and Sanda police stations arrived at the katchi abadi in Qaziabad, Gulshan-i-Ravi, with bulldozers and excavators early in the morning while the residents were either having breakfast or waking up. The workers began demolishing houses amid cries of women and children. A stampede erupted and two children received burn injuries from hot tea that fell on them in the foray.

Siddique Masih, 70, told The Express Tribune that the houses had been built some 40 years ago. Many of them were triple-storey buildings. He said they had not received any intimation about the demolition and had not been asked to vacate the buildings.

“During Nawaz Sharif’s first government, all the residents of the area went to his Model Town house and brought him to this colony. He then promised us that no one would force us to leave our homes here. That’s when the residents began to construct houses made of bricks and cement,” he said. “Now the government has razed them all,” he said.

The residents of the colony were seen collecting household items buried under the debris.

Billa Masih told The Express Tribune that he had just finalised his daughter’s wedding, to be held in the first week of June. “I requested the government officials – even touched their feet – so they would not demolish my house until my daughter was married, but they paid me no heed.” He said there was nothing he could do about that now. “I don’t know if I should look for new quarters first or try and marry my daughter off.”

Hamidan Bibi, a 70 year-old widow, said that she had been earning a living from a small shop which had now been demolished. Holding up her arthritic hands, she said it was already hard for her to manage a living, and wondered how she would manage to pay for a new lodging.

Sohail Johnson, chairman of an NGO, Sharing Life Ministry, told The Express Tribune that no one had given the residents prior notice and they had not been offered any compensation either for loss of their houses. He said the area’s elected representative, MPA Rana Mashhood, who was also a minister now, had promised the residents that no one would demolish their houses. “Now his mobile phones have been switched off.”

Human Liberation Commission Chairman Aslam Parvaiz Sahotra said not a single political leader from the government or the opposition had visited the area. He demanded compensation for the residents so that they could build their houses elsewhere. He said most of the houses were double storey and some triple storey. “These people had built these houses with the money they earned throughout their lives...the government demolished them in minutes.” He said household items were still buried under the debris.

Samanabad Town Administrator Asfand Yar Baloch told The Express Tribune that the houses had been illegally built on WASA land. He said the demolition was a part of pre-monsoon rains preparations.

When asked why the government had not gotten the houses vacated earlier [since monsoon rains occur each year] he said that they had the area vacated each year but people would build houses there all over again. No one was injured in the operation and not more than a dozen houses were razed, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2014.