The Assistant Commissioner (AC) Model Town Amna Munir on Wednesday offered to settle the dispute with the displaced residents of Katchi Abadi Rohi Nullah (Ittehad Colony) over their displacement and the Full Gospel Assembly (FGA) church left standing after the operation.
According to activists representing the community, Amna said that the administration preferred to amicably resolve the matter, after taking into account the perspective of the community. However, she stressed that there had been precedent for demolishing places of worship in the name of public welfare. She said she would consult Punjab Finance Minister and Minorities Minister Kamran Michael to discuss how to settle the matter.
On September 9 2011, former AC Model Town Irfan Memon led an operation to demolish the 104 houses that had been settled on the land, claiming that the land was being cleared to build a road to the New Sabzi Mandi in Kahna. The former AC had promised the residents alternative settlement. Now that the road project has started, the FGA church, left untouched in the previous operation, is now under threat of demolition. Advocate Misha Rehman, an active member of the All Pakistan Katchi Abadi Alliance when contacted for a statement referred to the Punjab Katchi Abadi Act 1992 and stressed that the original demolition was a violation of the settlement rights. She stated that the church, being a place of worship, was protected under the Constitution and as such could not be demolished in the manner suggested.
