Demanding rights: Activists protest against slum eviction drive in Islamabad

Campaigners stress the state is responsible for giving people home and shelter not making them homeless

KARACHI: The eviction of people and demolition of slums in Islamabad sector 1-11, led to a protest by the Home-Based Women Workers Foundation (HBWWF) and National Trade Union Foundation (NTUF) at Karachi Press Club on Tuesday evening.

The protesters demanded that slum evictions of working class people should be stoppedimmediately .

They further condemned the application of the anti-terrorism act on citizens who were arrested while resisting the demolition. Both the parties at the protest stressed that the state was responsible for giving people home and shelter, not making them homeless.

"Mostly labourers live in the katchi abadis that were demolished in Islamabad and we are here to protest against their eviction", said HBWWF finance secretary Saira Feroz.

Read: Slum eviction case: IHC directs interior ministry to draft workable plan

Addressing the crowd, HBWWF general secretary Zehra Akber Khan said, "By demolishing these slums that belong to the working class, the government has showed that it is working for the interest of land mafia." She further said, "If Lal Masjid people can get land, why can't the government provide land to these labourers?" She added that what they did was against the constitution, because it was against the rights of the people.

"The way women who resisted were dragged, is also against women rights," she added. "People who have been working and living there for more than 30 years are being evicted," said khan.

Read: Right to shelter: Slum dwellers protest CDA eviction drive

The activists demanded the immediate release of all the arrested people and asked for allotment of plots to all those who had become homeless. "According to the National Housing Policy 2001 and the article 38 and 38 D of the Constitution, the state is bound to provide shelter and basic facilities to all citizens, but government has failed in doing so," said NTUF president Rafiq Baloch.

The protesters said that certain people are given expensive forests and state-owned lands by the government while the poor are bereft of their own belongings.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2015.