Daily Times

Sir: The Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar Road is one of the busiest thoroughfares in Karachi and rightly dubbed as the Wall Street of Pakistan. Recently, the Business and Finance Centre, one of the buildings situated opposite the State Bank, has occupied a large portion of footpath by erecting concrete and steel structures. This has been done to facilitate the parking of motorcycles of the staff of different offices, which are situated in the Business and Finance Centre on I I Chundrigar Road.

Following this example, the Gul Tower, another building, has started doing the same, i.e. erecting steel and concrete structures on the footpath to facilitate the parking of motorcycles. Due to the lethargic attitude of the civic agencies, it is expected that all footpaths in the commercial areas will soon be converted into parking lots. Both the Business and Finance Centre and Gul Tower do have basements but their staff and visitors prefer to park their bikes on the footpath, finding it more convenient. Even if they do not have basements, it does not give them any right to occupy footpaths by erecting steel and concrete structures.
A million dollar question in such an emerging scenario is what would happen to the hapless pedestrians? Finding the thin strip of footpath not of much use, people are being forced to walk on the main road, thereby exposing themselves to all sorts of traffic hazards/mishaps. Can our blindfolded civic agencies take cognizance of the matter or would we have to seek help from the Rangers?
SADIA ADNAN
Karachi