Ammar Rashid

He said, “Under the Urban Shelter Program the CDA legalized a few slums and left the rest out in the lurch, because the national policy dictated that any slums setup after March 1985 were illegal.

We have in our possession voter lists consisting of thousands of people living in the I-11 and other katchi abadis as far back as the 1985 General Election.”

Ammar Rashid (Urdu: عمار رشید; born August 16, 1986) is a Pakistani researcher, academic, political worker and organizer of the left-wing party Awami Workers Party.

He has written many columns for Daily Times (Pakistan) and Dawn News.

He has taught as faculty of Centre of excellence for Gender Studies in Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan and Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.

It was requested in petition that the court declare the residents of katchi abadis of the federal capital entitled to the benefits conferred under Articles 9, 10A and 25 of the Constitution.“It should be declared that the state is bound to provide the residents of katchi abadis shelter and other amenities as per the Constitution and the National Housing Policy 2001.”

Rashid's political struggle started in 2007, when he was a student in LUMS, during Lawyers' Movement, initiated by lawyers of Pakistan against the military dictatorship of Pervez Musharraf.

On November 7, 2007, he along with 1,000 students of his university, gathered to protest the emergency rule imposed by Musharraf's televised emergency announcement on November 3, 2007.

After his teacher's (Aasim Sajjad Akhtar) arrest, he along with other students was also got arrested during the protest.

He did BSc (Hons) in Economics and Social Sciences in 2008 from Lahore University of Management Sciences and a master's degree in development studies in 2012, from Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK.

In LUMS, he was student of Aasim Sajjad Akhtar.

Rashid, as a professional has been involved in teaching and research work on areas ranging from health reform to public education, gender and development, public policy, political economy, tax reform, sub-national governance etc. His research interests include political theory and collective action.

He also taught at Centre of excellence for Gender Studies department at Quaid-i-Azam University and at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Islamabad.

He worked as programme officer of Social Sector in National Disaster Management Authority (Pakistan).

He is senior researcher at Heartfile.

He also worked with Federal Board of Revenue and Alif Ailaan.

Rashid follows the political ideology of socialism.

Major Pakistani news networks were not allowed to cover the student protest at LUMS, so Rashid took the initiative to start a newsletter named as “The Emergency Times” (November, 2007 - June, 2008) to narrate the protests’ details, to help students speak about democracy and organize against emergency rule.

The newsletter described itself as “an independent Pakistani student information initiative providing regular updates, commentary, and analysis on Pakistan’s evolving political scenario.”

Rashid is a senior and leading member of the Awami Workers Party (AWP) since the party was founded in 2012.

He served as general secretary and information secretary AWP Rawalpindi-Islamabad in 2014–2015.

As political worker of AWP, Rashid has been involved in struggle for the right to affordable housing and shelter in Islamabad in 2015.

He organized legal and political resistance to the inhumane and illegal evictions of people from Katchi Abadi (informal settlements) driven by Capital Development Authority (CDA).

While working with All Pakistan Katchi Abadi Alliance, Rashid talked about the flaws in system about rights to housing by people from informal settlements.

On July 30, 2015, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) along with police, local administration and rangers, demolished dwellings of ‘Katchi Abadi’ (informal settlements) in sector I-11/1, Islamabad destroying dozens of houses built since last 30 years.

On August 2, 2015, to stop these forceful evictions and fight for solution of this urban housing crisis in informal settlements of I-11/1, Rashid along with Aasim Sajjad Akhtar and residents from Kachi Abadi, filed a petition in the Supreme Court for the case on the right to housing.

On August 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered the federal government and other departments to stop further demolishing of houses in katchi abadi I-11, Islamabad.

In a court filing, CDA claimed it needed to demolish informal settlements as their growing Christian population would threaten the city's Muslim majority.

CDA stated: “It seems this pace of occupation of land by Christian community may increase… removal of katchi abadies is very urgent to provide better environment to the citizen of Islamabad and to protect the beauty of Islam.” Rashid told the newspaper, “The move was old-fashioned bigotry against minorities and working classes.

The administrative body has no right to be making decisions about the religious demography of Islamabad.”

He ran for the National Assembly seat NA-53 in the Islamabad capital territory for 2018 Pakistani general election.

He is senior researcher at Heartfile.

Rashid got his early education from schools in Rawalpindi.

Rashid was elected as president of Awami Workers Party Punjab unit in its third congress held on January 17, 2020 in Faisalabad.

On 28 January 2020, Islamabad police arrested Rashid, along with three other members of the Awami Workers Party, Ismat Shahjahan, Nawfal Saleemi and Saifullah Nasar, one member of Progressive Students Federation, PTM leader and member of the National Assembly Mohsin Dawar, and 23 other protesters while they were holding a peaceful protest demanding the release of Pashtun peace activist Manzoor Pashteen, in front of the National Press Club, Islamabad.

They were accused of entirely concocted charges of sedition against the state.

Ismat Shahjahan and Mohsin Dawar were released on 29 January but the Additional District and Sessions Judge refused to grant post-arrest bail to 23 protesters and sent them to jail.

The protesters appealed in the Islamabad High Court where they were granted bail by chief justice Athar Minallah on February 3, 2020.

The chief justice Athar Minallah, summoned the Islamabad City Magistrate, asking an explanation for first placing sedition charges on peaceful protesters and later turned them into terrorism charges in the first information report (FIR).

On February 17, 2020, Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat told Islamabad High court that all charges against the 23 protesters had been dropped by Islamabad administration.