MULTAN, Feb 1: About 2,000 cantonment area residents sent postcards to President Gen Musharraf on Monday urging him to stop the authorities from demolishing their homes as part of an anti-encroachment drive.

The Multan Cantonment Board launched an operation on Monday (today) to erase what it has declared the illegally constructed portions of more than 200 houses in the slums of Lal Kurti, Kanak Mandi and George Town.

Notices were served on the occupants to voluntarily demolish illegal constructions by Jan 31. Majority of the families whose constructions have been marked are of those who had migrated from India to Pakistan at the time of partition.

The then government had allotted them homes on areas of one or two marlas. As the family members increased with the passage of time, they required more space. The families have mainly constructed either kitchens or toilets on the few feet land which the board has declared encroachments.

There are 319 rooms in 204 houses where 2,010 people are living. In some instances, even more than 30 people are living in a two-room house. The campaign to seek the president's attention through postcards was launched by the Multan chapter of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

Most of the cards were written by the children in which they expressed their fear and stated that due to this their studies had been affected ahead of annual examinations.

In some cards, the children had questioned that why the army men were demolishing their small houses? In one card, a boy Asim drew a picture depicting his home being bombarded.

HRCP's Multan task force coordinator Advocate Rashid Rehman said a notice to any illegal construction should be served within two months of the happening under the Cantonment Boards Act, 1924, while the residents of Lal Kurti, Kanak Mandi and George Town had not been served any notice in the 50 years prior to those served recently.

Mr Rehman claimed that a plaza had been constructed on the land earmarked for a public library in the cantonment area while establishment of the state-run radio station on a playground and shops on the lands allocated for public toilets and green belts were other examples of the misuse of public land for commercial purposes under the nose of cantonment board.

When contacted, cantonment administrative officer Hamid Haroon rejected the allegations levelled by the HRCP official. He said inefficiency of the board officials in serving notices on the encroachers did not justify the illegal constructions. He claimed that the ongoing anti-encroachment drive was even-handed.