It appears authorities went ahead and began demolition of St Joseph's church on Tuesday as part of an anti-encroachment drive which civil society calls illegal.

On Monday, the Karachi Bachao Tehreek which has been spearheading efforts to stop illegal evictions in the city, and has been organizing against the demolition of the Catholic church tweeted its thanks to supporters for stopping the demolition. However, it warned people that residents feared its demolition once the issue lost traction on social media. It appears the tweet turned prophetic.

On Tuesday midmorning the group tweeted images of the demolition taking place and urged supporters to show up to record their protest.

The demolitions in Gujjar and Orangi nullah occurred following an order by the Supreme Court. This was despite a stay order on the demolitions of homes based on a petition by organizations which said the homes had been leased to the residents by the then government. But the Supreme Court dismissed the petition saying the land could not be leased and ordered authorities to continue the demolition.

As Dawn noted in its June 15 editorial: "When this exercise is completed (before this year’s monsoon, according to the plan), at least 100,000 people would perhaps have been rendered homeless. As many as 21,000 children would be out of school and living under the open sky."

While activists have said there should be concerns about the link between urban flooding and encroachment, the deeper issue was about housing - where are residents meant to go?

Later in the month Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights also took note of these demolitions which it said were carried out "without adequate consultation with the affected residents, no relocation plan, and disparate and insufficient compensation for the displaced”.

The statement said that more than 66,500 people have already been affected — in Gujjar nullah, 4,900 homes of 50,000 people have been demolished, along with 1,700 homes housing 16,500 people in Orangi nullah.

Tuesday's demolition of the church also raises questions about how the government treats its minorities.

This was aptly demonstrated in a series of tweets by lawyer Abira Ashfaq who has also actively campaigned to stop the demolition.

She also said the Sindh government could be held liable.

The demolitions also highlights another issue of whose properties gets demolished and whose get regularized. This was the jist of a speech by lawyer and president of the Sindh High Court Bar Association Salahuddin Ahmed who on August 21 asked why rules did not apply to Bahria Town developers.