Successive regimes in Pakistan have used housing for the poor as a political slogan. But it is ironic that in spite of the investment of billions of rupees, a lot of experimentation, and umpteen housing policies, the majority of the urban poor are still without proper shelter. Albeit the number is growing. Their last refuge is the ever-sprawling katchi abadis where the threat of eviction is always imminent, physical infrastructure is inadequate and basic amenities minimal. There is a general misconception about the low-income groups in Pakistan. They are usually lumped together with the middle class. No effort is made to see them as a group apart on the basis of their monthly household income and expenditure. Our planners ignore the fact that in Pakistan the rich and the affluent middle class are hardly 20 percent of the total population. The rest belong to either the lower middle class or the poor section. While the bulk of this class has an average household monthly income of Rs.3,500 or less, about one-third of our total population lives below the poverty line and is barely surviving. This one-third also includes the ‘wretched of the earth’ who hardly have any assured cash income and lead have a sub-human existence.