The vile stench of privilege

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) in Islamabad stinks of hypocrisy. This is nothing new; it has reeked for decades, a smell that is twinned with its status as a rotting invertebrate when it comes to toadying to those of wealth and privilege who choose to flout its rules and regulations — and those at the bottom of the pile, such as the residents of the Afghan Basti, who have just watched their homes bulldozed. The resolve of the CDA to raze the admittedly illegal encroachments of the poor never has been matched by a similar resolve when it comes to encroachments made by those in upscale parts of the city. Public land has been turned into private lawns and car parking spaces, as well as illegal housing and other projects, including illegally built mosques, which are the Great Untouchables of modern times.

The CDA is to a degree guilty of shooting itself in the foot. Hundreds of plots that were located near seasonal streams were allocated to “support the beautification of the city”. It was naive in the extreme of the CDA to imagine that landowners were going to do anything other than beautify their own holdings, which they duly did. Around 500 plots were allotted and over the last two years, the CDA has withdrawn permission to use them but has failed to take possession from the powerful bureaucrats and politicians who have encroached upon them. The CDA has tried to auction land on a number of occasions, but failed because the allottee refused to vacate that land. Most of the occupants have reportedly refused, similarly. Collectively, the plots are worth billions of rupees, a fact not lost on real estate developers and there are currently 109 illegal housing societies and agro-farming schemes that operate within the Islamabad city limits. Bulldozing the flimsy mud dwellings of thousands of poor people who have made illegal encroachments is easy enough. Actually growing a spine and taking on the rich and powerful is another matter entirely. Yet another example of craven cowardice in the face of wealth and privilege.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th,  2015.

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