Government and CDA Land in Hot Water

The Supreme Court has warned both the federal and provincial government and also directed the civic authority Capital Development Authority (CDA) to comply with its order for providing cheap housing facility to the poor and destitute and in case of non-compliance, both the responsible government officials and the civic authority would have to face consequences.

The court has given last chance to the concerned officials to devise policies for low-cost housing schemes for the poor and destitute. The court stated, "If the federal and provincial governments and CDA do not make any progress in two months then it would be compelled to initiate contempt proceedings against the concerned officers." Court gave this statement after hearing constitutional petition of Pakistan Workers Party against demolishing I-11 slums by the CDA.

Earlier the government has ordered to restraint CDA for demolishing the houses in I-11 and even after this hearing, the court maintained its earlier order. It ordered the CDA officials to apprise the court through an application in case, if anyone encroaches upon the public land in future – upon which, the court will pass appropriate orders. The bench was annoyed over non-compliance of its order by the government officials regarding allocation of budgetary funds as well as legislative laws for the low-income housing schemes as well as regularisation of slums.

The bench also observed that despite the span of one year, no visible progress has been made due to lethargic attitude of bureaucracy. It was informed to court that the government officials do not attend the meetings on the issue. Upon that the court ordered all the concerned officials to hold meeting on the relevant issue and directed to stop their salaries, if they do not attend the meeting.

The court stated, "If the court' s order is not being implemented then all chief secretaries should appear in person to explain the reasons of their failure." It also asked the secretary law & justice to submit progress report to the court on the issue in chamber. The copy of this order has also been sent to all chief secretaries and chairman CDA for compliance of earlier orders, wherein certain guidelines were given for devising the policies on low-cost housing schemes as well as slums.

The court has asked the CDA to conduct comprehensive mapping exercise of the capital city with assistance of NADRA to identify un-demarcated open lands and slums, which are illegally occupied – in order to devise low-cost housing society for poor.