ISLAMABAD: The Katchi Abadi residents and local Awami Worl(ers Party (AWP) leaders on Thursday met retired bureaucrat Tasneem Siddiqui, who has been nominated by the Supreme Court to devise policies aimed at addressing lowincome housing and the katchi abadi phenomenon.
Speaking on the occasion, Siddiqui said a report he had prepared for the SC stated that successive regimes had failed to meet the demand for lowincome housing in urban areas, and that katchi abadis must be understood as the informal sector`s response to state failure.
He said that the abadis should be regularized and resettled in alternative locations if absolutely necessary.
He said that the proliferation of katchi abadis would only cease when the state prioritized the interests of the working poor.
Siddiqui said he met the CDA of ficials, including the member planning and member administration, to design a future strategy in light of the SC`s instructions.
`The CDA committed to developing aproper regulatory framework to deal with katchiabadis,usingexternalexpertassistance if necessary.
The CDA was also told that the resettlement of almost 15,000 I-11 residents rendered homeless after the operation was imperative,` he said.
He said that CDA officials had promised to identify possible resettlement locations close to Sabzi Mandi, where most I-11 residents work.
At the meeting, AWP Punjab president Aasim Sajjad criticised the response from the bureaucracy and mainstream political parties towards the need for shelter for poor workers, and asserted the AWP`s commitment to challenging the anti-poor elite consensus and securing resettlement for I-11 katchiabadiresidents.
He said the party has planned to participate en masse in the city`s local government elections, and the threat of a genuine working class party setting down roots in the federal capital was alarming to the ruling class.
Sajjad said that katchi abadi residents could struggle for and eventually secure the rights the bureaucracy and mainstream political parties have denied to them.
