Daily Times

From ancestors we have heard that things need time to change, as majority of us know that politicians in sea of politics pass such hurtful statements in opposition to the current rulers such as Imran’s hundred days plan, IMF’s loan to Pakistan and the soaring price of petroleum. Now all are thankful to PTI’s effort of restoring Karachi’s Empress Market, and turning it into how it looked before the separation of Indo-Pak.

This market, one of the metropolis’s iconic buildings, has been cleared of all encroachments. The operation, as per the report, was conducted from November 5 to 15. KMC reportedly sent the report to the Commissioner of Karachi along with the pictures of the cleared area which proves that now the workforce under the control of the city government is truthfulness as well as honest.

MQM-P and PTI both are trying to gain advantage from this, as 480 illegal shops on Sohrab Khattak Road, 150 encroachments on Sarmad Shaheed Road and 450 stalls at Shahrah-e-Iraq were demolished during the drive. More than seven thousand sun shades were also taken out from Akbar Road and its surrounding areas. Encroachments on Zaibunnisa Street, Abdullah Haroon Road, Magazine Line, Raja Ghazanfar Ali Road and Mir Karam Ali Talpur Road were also removed.

MQM-P and PTI both are trying to gain advantage from this, as 480 illegal shops on Sohrab Khattak Road, 150 encroachments on Sarmad Shaheed Road and 450 stalls at Shahrah-e-Iraq were demolished during the drive

In my opinion, this is the best change I have seen in Karachi; MQM-P spent 30 successful years in Karachi but was unable to remove such things which pestered the entire heart of the largest city of Pakistan. I don’t understand how the Mayor of Karachi has been compelled to change the appearance of this city; as he used to say that the city government has no right to do so, but now he has promised that the iconic Empress Market will be transformed into a model heritage site.

Notice to remove shops of Korangi number 6 makes me happy but still no one from the force and the government has gotten there; it also makes me sad that shops will be removed which helped people run their homes.

When seeing the drawbacks in relation to the removal of encroachments, I am supposed to say that there should be something special ‘packages’ for the protesting shopkeepers for the reason that they had an alleged agreement with the Karachi commissioner, which gave them a few days to remove their goods, furniture and articles from the shops, which had not been honoured.

I think that the city government should have compensated the people whose shops were removed. The shops and stalls were the means that provided them with a livelihood and now they are suffering financially.

I also wish to appreciate MQM, if we look three years back the anti-encroachment department of Karachi KMC removed encroachments from Saddar’s Empress Market and Babar Market in Landhi, on the directives of the Administrator Muhammad Saqib Soomro. At that time, the Korangi district municipal corporation razed around thirty illegal shops in Babar Market. The KMC has launched its anti-encroachment campaign to rid roads, footpaths and other areas in and around the busy commercial centres of illegal occupations in order to facilitate people and provide a smooth passage for traffic during the holy month of Ramadan, but it was not bigger than the current removal.

There should be a massive drive to remove the encroached areas inside Landhi, Malir, Korangi and others areas as well. But this might be a really tough target for PTI. I think that if the most luminous area like Saddar’s encroachment is wiped out, then there should not be any hindrance for the current government.

Published in Daily Times, November 28^th 2018.