ISLAMABAD – The residents of Sector G-8/1 have erased the encroachments and camps from the CDA land allocated for the construction of a park and set the objects on fire.
The families living in the camps protested against the Capital Development Authority and police for being silent spectator in the whole issue. Residents of the area and the persons residing in the camps were of the view that if the police and the federal capital administration did not take timely action, the clash could culminate into untoward consequences.
Speaking about the encroachments on the land specified for a park in Sector G-8/1, district president of the PPP minorities wing, Parveen Akhtar said that the CDA had been provided a list of 900 homeless families and the civic authority had vowed to provide land to them in different sectors.
She further said that the families had camped in Sector G-8/1 with the permission of the CDA and they were planning to construct huts there soon but resident of the sector erased and burnt the camps. The police did not turn up for two hours to help the families residing in the camps, she added.
On the other hand, Muhammad Anwar, a high court advocate and resident of the area, protesting the encroachments said that the sector already had four katchi abadis (slums) and majority of the residents of the slums were involved in drug and arm dealing. Some people were exploiting the name of PPP and using the families belonging to minority groups to grab land, he said. Dozens of letters have been sent to the deputy commissioner, chairman CDA and other high-ups of the federal capital administration in this regard but no action has yet been taken by any authority.
An official of the CDA said that the civic authority did not permit any body to camp or construct house in Sector G-8/1, while some resolutions of the issue were under consideration.