Whilst the officially declared mitigation strategy against coronavirus is Stay Home, Stay Safe, Islamabad's administration has rendered hundreds of people homeless. Videos of a 'clean-up operation' posted on social media show a demolition squad tearing down at least 75 homes in a G-11/4 slum dwelling as their inhabitants look on helplessly. The one thing that may work toward redeeming and rehabilitating the affected families is the strong notice Minister for Human Right Shireen Mazari has taken of the operation. Declaring it "absolutely unacceptable", she said an immediate inquiry would be ordered to ascertain why it was done, apparently, without the sanction of the CDA and interior ministry, and that prompt action would be taken if any police official is found to be involved in the incident. She also announced that the evicted families would be provided with shelter and compensation as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, evidently impelled by the minister's reaction, deputy commissioner of Islamabad is reported to be actively pursuing the case. He told journalists the official who sanctioned the operation had been suspended. Nonetheless, he seemed to see it not entirely unjustified as he added, those who ordered pulling down the habitation "say it was a den of professional beggars. However, the inquiry will find out the facts." Even if some professional beggars lived there, that does not make their or other poor people's vulnerability any less valid. Slums exist in and around all urban centres providing labour to factories and domestic help to more fortunate members of society. Yet they are in constant clash with the authorities. There is no effort to resolve the housing needs of the poor. Even in a well-planned city like Islamabad, a number of illegal settlements have come up. As a result of which, scenes like the latest one keep occurring every now and then, drawing civil society protests.
With the high population growth rate and increasing rural-to-urban migration, the problem of slums is not going to go away. There is no easy solution. Throwing people out of squalid and overcrowded habitations is unacceptable. The poor have to live somewhere. That may present the authorities concerned with difficult choices, but the prevailing situation is undesirable, actually deplorable. The way forward is to properly map the existing slums with a view not to flattening them but to providing them with basic services and a healthy environment. Equally important, schemes have to be devised for the poor to build shelters for themselves in a designed fashion. It is about time the relevant government departments started paying serious attention to the need for proper urban planning.
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