Desolate Ground - VI

Location: Malpur, Islamabad, Pakistan

The little boy sat before the rubble that had once been his home, staring at it as if willing the walls to rise again. Only days earlier, government bulldozers had rolled through this settlement on the outskirts of Islamabad, clearing what officials deemed illegal structures built on state-owned land.

But where does the fault truly lie?

When Islamabad was conceived in the 1960s, the government purchased vast tracts from the original landowners and began shaping the new capital, sector by sector. Payments were made, records updated , yet many of those owners never actually vacated their land. Over time, their children rented out the same plots and houses to families who had no reason to doubt the legitimacy of their tenancy.

Now, as Islamabad expands outward, the state is reclaiming the land it paid for six decades ago. In the process, it is uprooting communities who have lived here for generations, people who built lives on ground they believed was theirs to call home.