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Sindh Katchi Abadis Act 1987

The impact of urbanization and urban growth on land has been severe. The government is unable to provide land for the poor and migrants. This reality has led to a large scale proliferation of squatter settlements or Katchi Abadis. People get piece of land from the land grabbers at an affordable price. Mostly the land belongs to the Board of Revenue. Government officials and the police are involve in this process of illegal sub-division. Katchi Abadi is officially a temporary settlement where legal leases cannot be issued. However, the official temporary nature of these settlements may be perceived quite differently by the occupants as the defecto security level of the settlement is usually much higher. The security level has also been increased with periodic announcements by different governments for regularizing Katchi Abadis creating one cut-off date following by another. Under the policy, Katchi Abadis existing upto 23 March 1985 and comprising at least 40 houses will be identified for regularization. Despite the strong worded Material Law Ordinances being in place regarding the removal of any further encroachments, new Katchi Abadis do form in anticipation of similar announcements by the government in future and subsequent shifting of the cut-off date for new abadis.

Another reason for the perceived security is that when people construct their houses and acquire few services then any move to demolish these structures is met by stiff resistance as people protect their investments. Usually when people receive a notice to vacate the land from the concerned government agency, through their Community Based Organisation (CBO) obtain a stay order from the court of law. This CBO in many cases is formed by the land grabber himself who in turn obtain protection from politicians and/ or key persons in the administration. For taking stay order form the court people through their lawyers had made use of the policies, Acts, regulations and Orders that have been promulgated at times.

Until the late seventies low-income housing policies in Karachi were based on clearance of Katchi abadis and resettlement of the residents. All the resettlement schemes failed to reach the target group due to variety of reasons. In the early seventies a change of policy came about. This policy was to legalize and improve these settlements rather than to demolish them. There were four basic features of this policy:

1. Security of tenure for the residents was provided through the issue of 99 years leases for which the resident., had to pay a lump sum amount. The lease rate were differentiated per land use category (residential, commercial) and according to plot size (the larger the plot the higher the lease rate per square yards).

 

2. KMC carried out a programme of environmental upgrading (watersupply, drainage, sewerage and solid waste disposal systems and metalling of roads). Planning standards where flexible in relation to local circumstances, and incremental, no solution was fixed; rather the opportunity for future development was being guaranteed.

 

 

3. The whole programme was be self-financing; improvement had to be financed out of revenues from lease and improvement charges.

 

4. In the whole process, peoples participation was crucial, not only because the residents had to pay for the improvements; also, because planning (e.g. of standards) cannot be done properly without the residents involvement. Finally, on plot improvements were completely left up to the inhabitants.

 

Regularised Katchi Abadi is one which has been approved by the government agencies for proper leasing and carrying out physical improvements to certain acceptable minimum standards. It then forms an officially accepted part of the city master plan.

In 1978 Martial Law Order (MLO) no. 67 was issued, called ‘Regularisation and Development of Katchi Abadis’. It was reconstituted in 1979 (MLO 110) refer page 5 of this report and again in 1982 (MLO 183) , and complemented by the Sindh Katchi Abadi Rules of 1982 refer page 1 article 3(4). Basic in these orders is that ‘the Government may…… declare an area …… to be a Katchi abadi and the Katchi abadi so declared shall …… be regularised and developed in accordance with the provisions of this order’. This order further states refer page no. 2 article 7(1) (1) (a) that regularization scheme shall inter-alia provide for ‘the rehabilitation of the unauthorized occupants of a Katchi Abadi in the same Katchi Abadi or, where it is not possible, in any other locality by allotting plots of prescribed size’.

In 1980 Chief Martial Law Administrator Zone ‘C’ promulgated an order MLO 130 to provide for measures for prevention and removal of encroachments. This order was called Removal of Encroachment Order, refer page 8 . In 1983 Martial Law Administrator zone ‘C’ reconstituted MLO 130 by MLO 202. This order provides the encroacher a facility to appear before the officer issuing the notice for removal of encroachment refer page 11 article 8.

In March 1987 the government of Sindh enacted a new law known as Sindh Katchi Abadis Act 1987 refer page 52, whereby Sindh Katchi Abadis Authoirty (SKAA) was setup under this act. SKAA was authorized to declare any area or part thereof, which was partially or wholly occupied in an unauthorized manner, prior to March 23, 1985, as a Katchi Abadi. In 1993 in suppression of all previous orders, directives and instructions formulated Sindh Katchi Abadis Authority (Regulations, improvement and development) Regulations, refer page no. 19, was notified. The article 8 of chapter IV of this regulation states “that the regularization scheme should dislocate minimum occupants, article 10 (ii) and (v) provides for an opportunity to the occupant to submit his objection regarding the scheme and when any building is required to be demolished according to the approved development scheme, the Authority shall compensate the owner in shape of allocating a minimum size open plot. Article 8 and 9 of chapter VII of the SKAA regulations 1993 further provides for the relocation and rehabilitation for the structures demolished from any reservations or amenity areas. This regulation reads as ‘ The structure(s) in existence before the preparation of development or improvement scheme on any reservations or amenity areas required for implementation of the scheme shall be demolished subject to the condition that the affectees shall be relocated and rehabilitated. Sufficient time will be given to the owner for removal of such structures’. and ‘If affected by an approved scheme, original unauthorized occupant may be resettlemd by providing an open plot of not less than 80 sq. yd. in area, preferably within the same Katchi abadi depending on the availability of land on the rates as mentioned in schedule ‘C’ of Sindh Katchi Abadis Regulations 1993. No cash compensation shall be given except the provision of an open plot mentioned above’.

Present policy decisions announced by the Chief Executive of Pakistan for the Regularization and upgradation of Katchi Abadis on 15th January 2001 refer page no. 71 states that the process of the regularization and upgradation of the pre 1985 Katchi abadis shall continue as per current policy. The new policy decisions emphasizes on relocation and resettlement plans amongst the pre 1985 Katchi abadis situated on land belonging to Railway or any other land owning agency.