LAHORE: Activists of the Awami Workers Party (AWP) staged a protest demonstration at Charing Cross here on Wednesday as part of its countrywide day of action to demand resettlement of the families evicted from I-11 slum in Islamabad and release of people arrested by the Islamabad police on “fabricated” charges of terrorism.

AWP President Abid Hasan Minto said the government had violated its own policy on katchi abadis by evicting families without providing them any resettlement plan. He claimed that the National Housing Policy 2001 said no settlement with more than 40 houses could be demolished in this manner.

Minto condemned the use of force against unarmed civilians by the Islamabad police during the demolition and said the CDA had undertaken a campaign of lies and disinformation about the settlement by referring to it as “Afghan Basti” and a “den of criminals”.

He said a majority of the residents was migrants from cities of south Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who had come to the federal capital to a earn a living for their families. He claimed the CDA had been unable to recover a single weapon from there.

Minto also said the AWP had submitted a petition in the Supreme Court seeking resettlement of the evicted families and was committed to raising the issue at all available forums.

AWP General Secretary Farooq Tariq criticised the CDA for its double standards in dealing with influential people and the poor families employed in menial jobs. He said the CDA had leased out at below than the market rate large swathes of public land to the Islamabad Club which catered solely to the needs of the city elite. He added that by evicting families of daily-wage labourers the CDA penalised the people for being poor.

He said the CDA and the PML-N leaders in Islamabad were aware of the popularity of the AWP among residents of the settlement and were afraid of losing upcoming municipal elections in the federal capital.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2015

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