ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Friday submitted to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) a four-phase plan for the removal of illegal slums in the capital.

The plan will be executed with the help of Pakistan Rangers, Islamabad police and the district administration soon after Eidul Fitr. The plan requires the assistance of 700 employees of the CDA, 20 reserves of the police, one company of the Rangers besides assistant commissioners, magistrates and other officials.

Illegal structures in the slums will be removed by 10 bulldozers, five excavators and five tractor trolleys. The civic agency will also deploy five fire vehicles and a similar number of ambulances during the operation.

As many as 42 slums in different parts of Islamabad will be removed while allocating two-10 days for each katchi abadi.

As part of the pre-operation activities, the civic agency proposed the disconnection of all the allied facilities of the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco), Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) and the CDA.

Four-phase plan to remove 43 illegal katchi abadis in the capital to begin after Eidul Fitr

The authority also proposed that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) should register FIRs against the slum dwellers for having illegal connections. For this, it also requires the support of the district administration and the police.

Under the plan, the directorate of the municipal administration, CDA, will launch an awareness campaign in the illegal slums asking the dwellers to vacate the land. As part of the awareness campaign, notices and banners will be displayed at different locations.

The special branch of the police will also be assigned the task of monitoring the katchi abadis before, during and after the operation.

In the report, the city managers said the slums had been illegally constructed on the CDA land. The dwellers have also established illegal connections of utility outlets. The report claimed: “many crimes have been traced to the inhabitants of these abadis” and the slums also provide ‘hideouts’ to criminals.

In the phase-I to be launched soon after Eid, the civic agency proposed the removal of slums in the greenbelts of 1-10, H-10, H-11, I-12, Bari Imam katchi abadi, Mohalla Dari Bagh, Maskeen Colony and Shopper Colony in G-7.

Phase-II included katchi abadis in Chak Shahzad, Dhoke Pattan, Khanna Pull Road, New Shakrial and Shams Colony.

Phase-III is about slums of Bheka Syedan, Sumbol Karok, G-12, F-12, and some parts of E-12.

Phase-IV is against katchi abadis in sector G-7/1, G-7/2, G-7/3-2, F-6/2 and F-7/4.

The CDA stated before the court that it required two to 10 days for the removal of each katchi abadi and may require massive relocations of the inhabitants.

The civic agency also sought the shifting of a graveyard from Sector I-11/2. The job, however, was assigned to the DMA.

As part of the action plan, a control room will be established, consisting of the representatives of the CDA, district administration, police and other departments concerned.

Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the IHC on April 16, 2014, ordered the CDA to remove the illegal slums. On June 4, 2015, the IHC directed the secretary interior, CDA chairman and the inspector general of police to evolve a plan to remove the illegal slums.

On Friday, representatives of an alliance of katchi abadis urged the court to revisit its order against the slums. Justice Siddiqui, however, observed that the representatives were neither a party to the petition nor aggrieved by the order.

The CDA counsel informed the court that the inhabitants of the illegal katchi abadis had encroached upon several developed plots, greenbelts and even nullahs.

After the CDA submitted the action plan, the court adjourned the hearing of the matter till after Eid.

Published in Dawn June 27th, 2015

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