Hundreds of thousands of residents of Katchi Abadis from Cantonment area Hyderabad have described their grievances under control of Cantonment Board, demanding restoration of their rights as citizens and to merge their colonies in municipal limits of Hyderabad district government.
Addressing news conference here on Sunday, leaders of Action Committee Katchi Abadis (Cantt) Hyderabad, Hanif Khan, professor Musawar Ali Khan, Syed Azhar Ali and others said that hundreds of thousands of citizens of Hyderabad and Latifabad were living in Katchi Abadis covered by Cantonment Board Hyderabad where they have been deprived of their rights since long.
They said that Cantonment Board has deprived them of their basic rights and it was not issuing NOC for getting connection of electricity, water and other facilities. They have been also deprived of verification of their identity cards, birth and death certificates. Their dead are not allowed to be buried at Cantt graveyard.
They said that they had given application to Chief Justice Supreme Court Chaudhry Iftikhar who had taken up their matter for hearing and had also issued orders to chief secretary Sindh to redress their grievances but as he was removed in 2007 their plight continues to multiply. They said they have again sent appeal to Justice Chaudhry. They demanded of chief justice and president, prime minister, governor and Sindh government to merge their 14 colonies in municipal limits of district government so that they could get their citizen rights they have been deprived of.