ABSTRACT
Poor service providers of Islamabad responded to the official plan's neglect of the poor in the name of steering away from the 'corrupting' indigenous influence of the low-income population by undertaking unplanned appropriation of land. Due to systematic neglect of the poor, informal settlements emerged to cater to the needs of service providers as well as low-income employees, and migrants coming to the capital in search of job opportunities. Many of these low-income residents work for Capital Development Authority (CDA). CDA solved the problem of shelter by ignoring informal settlements or periodically evicting them in the name of compliance with the Master Plan. CDA tried various ad hoc solutions to deal with the growth of informal settlements: eviction, relocation to a formal settlement and rehabilitation. These policies suffered from the limitations of a formal sector approach and did not provide any lasting solution. Government policies and budgetary support mechanisms have not achieved much success in solving the problem.
