Slums in the federal capital are nothing less than a blessing for the poor, who work in the houses of elite class of the city as servants, guards and drivers, but no one can deny the fact that many of these areas have become a safe heaven not only for gamblers, thieves and robbers but also for terrorists. Located opposite to one of the posh Sector G/11, Meherabad is a small settlement, which is also considered as the slum area because most of the people living there have a poverty-stricken background.
A village with a few hundred dwellers can provide an easy den to criminals because anyone can get house or room in it by paying rent ranging from Rs 1,000 to 4,000. Interestingly, most of the maids working in Islamabad also lived there while a number of theft and robbery cases against these ladies have been noticed. But the people of Islamabad are compelled to hire the services of Meherabad’s residents because finding a servant in the capital has become a difficult job.
“We hired a girl from Meherabad for cleanliness despite knowing that her sister had stolen my gold earrings from my room,” said Mrs Tariq while talking to Pakistan Today. She said after the incident, the girl’s parents came to them and sought an apology and requested to hire their other daughter as a maid. “I accepted the request and also provided her room to live in my home” she added.
But it not limited to the “routine” cases of theft and robbery, as terrorists also assassinated a serving brigadier at the G-11 Service Road, close to unplanned settlement in Meherabad.
At that time, some eyewitnesses had told police that they had seen the hit men coming out of the village before targeting the army official in the morning.
Several residents of Sector G/11 also complained that the incidents of theft and mobile snatching had reached to an alarming proportion in the locality and accused that most of the thieves lived in Meherabad.
Police have now taken some extra steps to keep a check on the people resides in the village, but Tabish Raza, a resident of the same locality, said if the authorities searched the village thoroughly, they might find a large number of criminals and gamblers, disproportionate to the size of Meherabad when compared with the whole city.
Keeping in view these complains and suspicions, the capital police have deployed extra corps at Meherabad to keep strict check on every person visiting the area. However, the situation in other slums of the city is also not encouraging because most of these areas have no legal status and also not have any data of their dwellers. Some of the slums with a legal status include Tent Colony G-7/1, G-7/2, G-7/3, G-8/1, F-6/2, France Colony F-7/4, Haq Bahu I-11/4, Dhoke Najju I-10/4, Essa Nagri I-9/1 and Muslim Colony, Bari Imam.
Somehow it has become an accepted fact, although not be a cherished one, the slum areas are an essential part of the large cities around the whole world. Many of the poor labourers working on daily wages also lived in these areas; however, foolproof security in Islamabad can make these areas safe and accommodate only the deserving people.
