A slum inside Karachi Pakistan, next to upscale Race Course neighborhood December 2009

Squatting in Pakistan is the occupation of unused land or derelict buildings without the permission of the owner. Squatted

informal settlements Informal housing or informal settlement can include any form of housing, shelter, or settlement (or lack thereof) which is illegal, falls outside of government control or regulation, or is not afforded protection by the state. As such, the inform ...

formed following the

creation Creation may refer to: Religion *''Creatio ex nihilo'', the concept that matter was created by God out of nothing * Creation myth, a religious story of the origin of the world and how people first came to inhabit it * Creationism, the belief tha ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

in 1947. They were known first as "bastis" then later "katchi abadis" and the inhabitants were forcibly resettled under military rule. By 2007, there were 7.5 million squatters in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

alone. The Sindh Katchi Abadi Authority (SKAA) announced in 2019 that a total of 1,414 katchi abadis had been located and 1,006 of those had been contacted with regards to beginning a regularization process.

History

Squatter areas in

are known as "bastis" or "katchi abadis" and low-income villages absorbed into cities are called "goths". The goths are defined by the

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provin ...

as slums. After the

of Pakistan in 1947, the new capital

grew rapidly in size. Bastis were formed either through land invasions or illegal subdividing of existing land. The largest squatter area, Orangi, was home to around a million inhabitants. Following the

1958 Pakistani coup d'état The 1958 Pakistani coup d'état began on October 7, when the first President of Pakistan Iskander Mirza abrogated the Constitution of Pakistan and declared martial law, and lasted until October 27, when Mirza himself was deposed by Gen. Ayub Kha ...

, the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...

ruled the country and changed the capital to

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

. It decided to move all the squatters in Karachi into two townships called Landhi-Korangi and

New Karachi New Karachi Town ( ur, ) lies in the northern part of the city Gulberg Town. It was formed when katchi abadis were resettled following the 1958 coup d'état. In 2001 it was subdivided into 13 union councils. The town system was disbanded in ...

. The katchi abadis were demolished and the inhabitants forcibly resettled. By the early 1990s, there were over 2 million people squatting in Karachi (out of the 8 million total population) and by 2007, there were 7.5 million squatters out of a total population which had risen to 15 million. There were also katchi abadis in other cities. Islamabad had 52 squatter areas in 2015, estimated to be housing over 100,000 people, and there were 25 squatter settlements in Bahawalpur in 2014.

Regularization

The government has embarked upon a program of regularization. The Sindh Katchi Abadi Authority (SKAA) announced in 2019 that a total of 1,414 katchi abadis had been located and 1,006 of those had been contacted with regards to beginning a regularization process. Karachi had 575 settlements,

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

408, Shaheed Benazirabad 144,

Larkana Larkana ( ur, , translit=lāṛkāna; sd, لاڙڪاڻو, translit=lāṛkāṇo) is a city located in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is the 15th largest city of Pakistan by population. It is home to the Indus Valley civilization site Moh ...

112, Sukkur 91 and Mirpurkhas 84.

History

Regularization

References

Further reading