'Shocking and criminal': Minister furious after huts of 75 poor families razed in Islamabad
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The Islamabad administration on Thursday ordered an inquiry after huts in which some 75 poor families were living were razed in the capital's G-11/4 area.
"Absolutely unacceptable," declared Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari on Twitter after the operation at the kutchi abadi had been carried out.
She said she had spoken to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman and the interior minister and an "immediate inquiry" was ordered to ascertain why the action was done apparently without the sanction of the CDA and the interior ministry.
The minister said action will be taken immediately if any police official is found involved in the incident.
"Shocking and criminal behaviour on part of those involved," she remarked, announcing that the 75 evicted families would be provided shelter and compensation as soon as possible.
Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat in a tweet said the concerned official of the enforcement department had been suspended over the action.
The authorities that ordered the operation "say it (the area) was a den of professional beggars, however, the inquiry will find out [the] facts", he added, saying food and shelter were being arranged for the people on the site.
Photos and videos shared on Twitter showed a tractor tearing down structures as helpless dwellers look on.
Social activists criticised authorities for razing the huts and making hundreds of people homeless in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
"This is how the working people, the daily wagers, are being looked after in Islamabad. Kudos to everyone who made the evictions possible in the times of Covid-19," tweeted Tooba Syed, a member of the Women Democratic Front and visiting faculty at Quaid-i-Azam University.
"The Pakistani government telling people to #StayHome while bulldozing the homes of the poor," wrote Ammar Rashid, a researcher and political worker.
He shared a video in which a woman from the locality speaks of how the residents begged the authorities to spare their homes as they didn't have food to eat "but they showed no mercy".
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Comments (52) Closed
Apr 16, 2020 10:27pm
Provide them home and pay them as soon as possible.
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Apr 16, 2020 10:44pm
'Islamabad is the most beautiful capital in the world' !
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Apr 16, 2020 10:44pm
Did they give that land to Gang of 50 (Aziz)
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Apr 16, 2020 10:49pm
And u people teach humanity to Indians.
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Apr 16, 2020 10:50pm
Pity.
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Apr 16, 2020 10:54pm
Why does PTI pretend to care about the poor during lockdown when it's demolishing their homes in the capital? shame on you
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Apr 16, 2020 10:58pm
She thinks her tweet has any force? She is sadly mistaken. A resignation perhaps can be a better tool. And, why on earth we need a Human Rights ministry?
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Apr 16, 2020 11:21pm
Picketty is spot on once he says that the biggest curse of today is worship of private property. Historically wars used to break the shackles on property controlled by rich but with sovereign states and no wars of occupation has given rise to record inequality. If hoarding of essential stuff is illegal than why hoarding of land is legal? If one isn't living on some piece of land or not tilling it than one should have no right over that land
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Apr 16, 2020 11:26pm
With this logic, you know which house should be demolished next!
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Apr 16, 2020 11:41pm
Did we made any progress in agenda of providing housing to poor. Low cost housing is also for middle class. Income enhancement programs is requirement of the hour.
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Apr 16, 2020 11:59pm
So, next will be Karachi Orangi Slums?
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Apr 17, 2020 12:48am
katchi abadis are created by town /police takingbribes--govt must investigate/why are these bastis created w/o permission town
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Apr 17, 2020 01:19am
Jjacky, its not all about India
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Apr 17, 2020 01:25am
@M. Emad, was
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Apr 17, 2020 01:25am
On one hand, Govt claims to provid poor people houses, on the otherhand, it's acting otherwise even in Capital under its nose. Another U-turn I guess???
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Apr 17, 2020 01:28am
@H.Khan, so you are encouraging Qabza Mafia....
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Apr 17, 2020 01:35am
Another sad day for us! The noble kindheart has let us down again.
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Apr 17, 2020 01:50am
They destroyed houses/ colony because it belong to poor people. Have you seen they destroyed elite/ rich people bungalow/ housing? Never. Bani gala housing is an example, they regularize it because where our PM, bureaucrats and other rich men lives.
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Apr 17, 2020 02:26am
Give them free plots in DHA.
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Apr 17, 2020 03:20am
Instead of being just furious, she should put them in govt housing and provide food first. What is PM doing sitting in Banni Gala? These are the poor people he claims to care about! He is not opening the lockdown for the poor, but for the jehangir tareens, aleem khans and razzaq dowds of the country so they can mint their money and provide him free helicopter rides!
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Apr 17, 2020 03:52am
@Ibrahim S, You have not visited world capitals. What some officers have done cannot be justified.
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Apr 17, 2020 03:52am
To start with, it is not a question of an inquery first. They should arrange for these 75 families to be housed somewhere and then start thinking about an inquery.
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Apr 17, 2020 03:53am
@Jjacky, Bith act the same way hd criticise the other.
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Apr 17, 2020 03:55am
@Zeeshan, I simply can't accept the logic behind such statements.
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Apr 17, 2020 03:57am
@ratan bhai, there is no reason to bother about Karachites, they choose not to handle their problems.
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Apr 17, 2020 04:02am
The district administration is hilarious.
They will take action.
Hilarious.
Incompetent officers now trying to shift he blame on others.
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Apr 17, 2020 04:03am
The most incompetent and imbecile district administration.
The thieves will hold an inquiry into the theft
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Apr 17, 2020 04:10am
They need to be provided alternate housing ASAP.
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Apr 17, 2020 04:13am
@amna, looks like IK have zero interest in local and internal issues. Too busy focused on Debt Relief requests.
IK cannot seem to multi-task.
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Apr 17, 2020 04:15am
Where is imran khan niazinow?!
imran khan niazi goes around lecturing anyone and everyone in the world -- what is imran khan niazi doing about his OWN country?!
That too in Islamabad?!
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Apr 17, 2020 04:33am
Were is common sense.
The Authorities I believe are going to give shelter, and food.
Would it not have been better, if, the authorities had planned it better. Right hand don't know what the left is doing.
Nothing Imran can do, the authorities are a law to themself.
Governments orders are not followed up, as they should be. We can see this every day in life.
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Apr 17, 2020 04:53am
Last July, while the foundation stone was being laid for a 18500 affordable housing project in Islamabad’s Zone-IV on govt. procured land, as part of 5 M new homes to be built, the PM promised that low income group as well as the poor will be able to afford such homes, to be allocated through a lucky draw, & handed over 18 months after allocation. Though the details of the public-private public partnership formula applied still remaining unclear, the question remains that did the PM, knowing that there being lot of poor like the above ones, living in such slums illegally, ever considered to own such homes?
Now with the rabbit is out of the hat, it would be interesting to see how our Minister Human Rights, being a novice like her other clueless compatriots, always seen moving in circle, would accomplishes her promise of action, while the 50 families living under the sky with nothing to protect them from the ravaging coronavirus, will become a real challenge for those who matter.
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Apr 17, 2020 04:57am
Shireen Mazari, please. Don't encourage illegal occupation of state land. These illegal structures are serious threat to not only their own safety but also citizen of Islamabad. So keep your mantra out of it.
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Apr 17, 2020 05:08am
Maybe malik riaz needed the land to build bahria town or maybe another Rao Anwar of Islamabad was behind it. Shame!
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Apr 17, 2020 05:18am
@Jjacky,
"And u people teach humanity to Indians"
A federal minister has taken up this case, and civil society is already reacting. That is how humanity works. Personally I wouldn't even bother teaching this to you people, you lost sight of the meaning over 70 years ago.
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Apr 17, 2020 05:39am
Shireen knew beforehand, she is putting on a show. They all are.
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Apr 17, 2020 05:46am
Can anyone just occupy anyone's land and just start living there ?
Are we moving towards the law of the jungle ?
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Apr 17, 2020 06:22am
I don't think evacuation of illegal possession is wrong, but why were they allowed to erect their structures to begin with.
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Apr 17, 2020 06:35am
#Stay home stay under tractor's big tyres.
We have found the way to kill the virus...
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Apr 17, 2020 06:54am
@Jjacky, what is Indian doing here.
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Apr 17, 2020 06:56am
@Mark,
Which
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Apr 17, 2020 07:14am
Were they illegally encroaching the land? If yes, then its justified. Just because you are poor doesnt mean you can set up a hut wherever you want isnt it?
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Apr 17, 2020 07:27am
The land from these people are evacuated must belong to some private owners. It is not clear that why these people were occupying private land. They must be provided shelters . In these such areas criminals also take shelters. Who is responsible to let these people settle there?
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Apr 17, 2020 07:31am
Being poor does not give anyone right to occupy what ever. Help them, but don't allow them to take away lands as mafia use them and this is a big business.
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Apr 17, 2020 07:39am
This is because of criminal negligence when these illegal abadies started developing and the authorities shut their eyes and mind.
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Apr 17, 2020 08:10am
I also know that Islamabad land is expensive. I hope Shireen Mazari does the job she is hired to do. I suggest she follows the money, and will find some land developer behind this diabolical plot.
Shireen Mazari should have gone to the Supreme Court to protest against this Lock-down.
It targets the poor disproportionately. Right to Life clause of the Constitution has precedence over the Equality Clause, even so the burden cannot be borne by the poor alone.
Until the State puts forward substantial remedy for the poor the Lock-down is unfair.
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Apr 17, 2020 08:16am
If you are really shocked, please rebuild huts and rehabilitate displaced. Words means nothing.
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Apr 17, 2020 08:43am
She loves to cry foul when its all done n dusted. Can any enforcement office just pick up a bulldozer and undertake such operation. It has to have certain approvals/workings in place before sch an operation takes place. Public backlash did not stop the razing of hundreds of semi built houses not shanty huts, in various karachi areas on railways land in the name of KCR. More than a year is gone but no sign of kcr but only sad stories of families who r still waiting hopelessly. No good for tweet only, minister has yet come to their rescue
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Apr 17, 2020 09:24am
Cda is pathetic. Why do they allow these katchi abaadis in the first place only to tear them down later. Corruption to the hilt. Senior CDA staff regularly take bribes from land mafia. The common daily wage worker suffers.
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Apr 17, 2020 09:37am
Shame itself is ashamed to describe how savagely the poorest of the poor who hardly eat two meals a day and third in day dream are uprooted as their straw made huts, not houses, are bull dozed while the grief stricken children and women cried but the blind, deaf and dumb did not care and now the starving families are forced to live under the open sky and that also at the time when the city is slapped with lock down hence they who are daily wage earners in any case do not have any work to earn. PM Imran whom I always admire seems to be humanity champion who always in his address to the nation have shown his great concern about our poorest of the poor numbering about 25% of our population so PM must on one hand 1st arrange housing for them and then issue orders to immediately arrest all those who are directly or indirectly involved in such inhumane action. Those arrested must be paraded right before these poor of the poorest who thus can hurl stone at them./ zaidi.iqbalhadi@hotmail.com
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Apr 17, 2020 11:16am
Did the authorities tell them where to build their "bungalow". People have to have a place to sleep.
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Apr 17, 2020 11:42am
I am shocked & surprised to see the reaction of the honourable minister - while they live with police pickets and security we the common people are left at the mercy of these so called poor people who come out of these guys and indulge in all kinds of criminal activities. So many such huts and unauthorised dwellings have come up in all sectors especially in F-11.
On the other hand If CDA does not take action. They are labelled corrupt and inefficient for allowing such dwellings - if they take action, they are criminal & heartless !
Full marks to CDA for making sure there are no unauthorised dwellings. Covid 19 cannot be used as an excuse to allow people to start taking over empty spaces and green areas !
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