ISLAMABAD: Nargis Bibi was cooking breakfast for her family on Apr. 14 when officials knocked on her door with news that bulldozers would soon tear down both her home and the adjoining shop that was her family’s sole source of income.
Moments later, she collapsed in shock and has been fighting for her life in a hospital ever since.
Bibi, 46, is one of thousands affected by a sweeping anti-encroachment drive launched by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) across the federal capital in recent months, targeting informal settlements called “katchi abadis” in areas such as Bari Imam.
The enterance of the emergency ward of Polyclinic, a government hospital where Nargis Bibi is admitted in Islamabad on April 29, 2026. (AN Photo)
The drive has drawn criticism from rights groups, who say evictions are being carried out without adequate notice, legal safeguards or resettlement plans.
In January, authorities demolished Muslim Colony, a decades-old settlement near the Prime Minister’s House and Diplomatic Enclave, leaving its inhabitants homeless. The campaign has since expanded to Saidpur village, Bari Imam and Christian-majority settlements including Allama Iqbal and Rimsha colonies. Bari Imam is located in Islamabad’s Noorpur Shahan area, at the foot of the picturesque Margalla Hills.
While the demolition drives rob people of homes and livelihoods, for Bibi’s family, the scars run much deeper.
“She heard what they said and just collapsed,” Nauman Nisar, Bib’s 19-year-old son, told Arab News. “We rushed her to the hospital. We didn’t even have time to take anything from the house.”
Nisar said his mother’s blood pressure surged after hearing the news, making her suffer from partial paralysis. She is currently undergoing treatment at Islamabad’s Poly Clinic Hospital, where she remains unconscious.
By the time the grief-stricken family returned from the hospital that day, their home and a shop were both razed to the ground.
Eyewitnesses described the chaotic scenes that unfolded when the demolition drive began. They say heavy machinery tore through their homes, as residents scrambled to salvage whatever they could find.
Excavator clears rubble of demolished homes in the Bari Imam neighbourhood of Islamabad, Pakistan on Apri 29, 2026. (AN Photo)
Police and local officials were present, they said, as structures were brought down one after another.
Arab News visited Bari Imam to see heavy tractors moving debris of what used to be shanty homes in the locality. The house where Bibi used to live is no longer there. Instead, there lies only dust, debris and a flattened patch of land.
Rights activist Alia Amirali said forced evictions of informal settlements in Islamabad have long been contested in courts, arguing that authorities are bound by legal safeguards.
She pointed to the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) demolition of a similar settlement in Islamabad’s Sector I-11, which was challenged in the apex court.
“In that 2015 court case, the Capital Development Authority was issued a stay order, barring it from any summary evictions until and unless the case is settled, until and unless a regulatory framework is made, until and unless they seek permission from the court showing that there is either pressing need for that land or demonstrating that some kind of new settlement has come into being,” she told Arab News.
Amirali said eviction drives carried out since then were “in contravention of the Supreme Court’s stay order,” which, she said, remains in force.
But authorities say the anti-encroachment drives are legal.
Dr. Anam Fatima, director of municipal administration at the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation, told Arab News that the land belongs to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and that its occupants are “trespassers.”
“No approved katchi abadi is being evacuated,” she said, adding that landowners were compensated while residents were issued prior notices multiple times and given sufficient time to relocate with their belongings.
But those who lived at Bari Imam for decades say the measures did not address their situation.
Nisar Ahmed sits on the rubble of his demolished home in Bari Imam area of Islmabad, Pakistan on April 29, 2026. (AN Photo)
“The government ... forcibly evicted us,” Nisar Ahmed, Bibi’s husband, told Arab News, asking where the residents were supposed to take their families.
Clashes erupted last month when Bari Imam residents attempted to block the demonstrations. This prompted police to fire tear gas at protesters, leading to chaos.
Ahmed remembers the clashes all too well. He said officials gave the residents a month’s time after the protest and when that was up, came back to demolish their homes.
“I have lost my business, my house, my wife has also fallen sick,” he said.
“My children are worried, I am worried. Who do I plead to?“
