CDA Build before you demolish

The bulldozer has become a symbol of urban governance in Islamabad. Capital Development Authority (CDA) periodically launches operations to recover public land, remove encroachments and restore the city’s planned character. Still the same questions return after every operation. Where should displaced families go? How can small traders rebuild their livelihoods? And why does the state allow unauthorised settlements and commercial structures to develop for years before suddenly discovering the urgency of enforcement? Islamabad needs a different approach. The government must build before it demolishes.

Recent operations in Bhara Kahu and Bari Imam expose the contradictions of the capital’s urban management. In October, the CDA launched an operation targeting 108 kanals of state land in Bhara Kahu. Earlier, confrontations in Bari Imam raised questions about compensation, ownership and the treatment of affected communities. Recovering illegally occupied public land remains a legitimate state responsibility. However, enforcement must distinguish organised land grabbing from residential vulnerability, lawful ownership from disputed occupation, and commercial speculation from the struggle for shelter.

The deeper problem is Islamabad’s outdated development model. The capital continues to expand horizontally, consuming land for housing colonies, commercial developments and roads while neglecting the potential of compact, planned neighbourhoods. Land is finite. The demand for housing, employment and public services is not. Continuing this pattern will place further pressure on agricultural land, natural drainage system, forests and surrounding communities. Islamabad must move towards carefully regulated vertical development rather than treating outward expansion as its inevitable future.

Bhara Kahu, Bari Imam and Taramri offer an opportunity to demonstrate an alternative. Instead of demolishing existing neighbourhoods and relocating residents to distant settlements, CDA should explore redevelopment within or near the same localities. It could identify suitable land, construct multi storey residential buildings and provide eligible households with secure accommodation before requiring them to vacate their existing premises. Small traders could receive appropriately located commercial units, protecting their access to customers and livelihoods.

Consider a pilot project covering 200 kanals of suitable land in Bhara Kahu. Through an appropriate combination of residential buildings, commercial premises and community facilities, planners could examine how many households the site might accommodate. This figure represents a proposition for feasibility assessment, not a claim that the entire populations of Bhara Kahu, Bari Imam and Taramri could occupy such an area. Household survey, land records, environmental assessments and infrastructure capacity must determine the actual scale. Similar projects could follow in other localities.

The sequence matters. First, establish ownership and eligibility. Second, construct replacement accommodation. Third, rehabilitate residents and businesses. Only afterwards should the CDA recover occupied land for planned development. Such an approach would replace uncertainty with negotiated transition and reduce the social costs of displacement.

Compensation must follow clear legal principles. Verified property owners deserve their lawful entitlements, while vulnerable occupants without formal title require transparent rehabilitation arrangements rather than automatic ownership awards. Tenants, women headed households and small traders also need consideration. Organised land grabbers cannot enjoy the same protections as families facing homelessness. An independent claims mechanism, public eligibility records and accessible appeals would help prevent fraudulent compensation, political favouritism and arbitrary exclusion.

This financial model could make redevelopment more attractive to the government. Islamabad’s increasingly valuable urban land should become a resource for social improvement. After accommodating eligible residents, the CDA could develop suitable commercial portions of recovered land through transparent leases and regulated mixed use projects. Commercial revenues and increases in publicly captured land value could help finance residential construction, public facilities and infrastructure. A dedicated redevelopment fund, independently audited, could protect these resources from diversion.

This does not mean that every project will finance itself. Construction costs, land values, infrastructure requirement and future maintenance obligations require independent assessment. The government must avoid transferring valuable public land to private developers under arrangements that privatise profits while leaving rehabilitation costs with taxpayers.

Equally important is the responsibility of those who permit encroachments to flourish. Illegal construction rarely emerges overnight. It develops through administrative neglect, weak enforcement and, in some cases, alleged official complicity. Demolishing buildings without examining how they obtained utility connections, commercial access or apparent administrative acceptance leaves the institutional causes untouched. Accountability must extend beyond occupants to officials who facilitate or knowingly tolerate unlawful development.

Vertical housing, however, is not a solution by itself. Islamabad must avoid replacing informal settlements with poorly maintained concrete towers. Every redevelopment project should include reliable drinking water, wastewater treatment, waste segregation, fire safety, accessible lifts, schools, healthcare facilities, pedestrian infrastructure and public transport connections. Authorities must protect natural waterways, environmentally sensitive slopes and ecological corridors. Building heights should reflect geological conditions, population density and infrastructure capacity rather than speculative demand.

The CDA should establish permanent, professionally managed residential complexes with enforceable maintenance standards and transparent service charges. No building should receive occupancy approval without functioning water, sanitation, emergency and waste management system. The objective should be zero untreated wastewater discharge, effective waste recovery and safe drinking water, supported by measurable environmental standards. Public authorities must plan not merely for the first occupants but for future generations.

Urban redevelopment also concerns social relationships. Families depend on neighbourhood networks for childcare, employment, credit, security and mutual assistance. Moving them to distant locations can destroy these resources even when replacement housing appears physically adequate. Urban scholars have long distinguished neighbourhood improvement from gentrification that displaces lower income residents. Islamabad should pursue regeneration without exclusion, allowing established communities to share in the economic benefits of redevelopment.

The CDA should begin with a transparent pilot, involving residents, urban planners, engineers, sociologists, financial specialists and independent oversight. It should publish the land inventory, rehabilitation criteria, financial projections and environmental safeguards. Success should be measured through secure housing, preserved livelihoods, recovered public land, functioning services and accessible green spaces, not simply the number of structures demolished.

Islamabad cannot become a sustainable capital through demolition drives alone. It must recover public land, but it must also protect legitimate rights, prevent homelessness and plan for a future in which scarce urban land serves a growing population. The choice is not between encroachment and enforcement. It is between reactive demolition and intelligent redevelopment.

Build before you demolish. Rehabilitate before you relocate. And plan for people before planning for property.

The writer is a professor of sociology and founding director of the School of Sociology at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. He researches urban mobility, road safety and public policy.