The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) launched on Tuesday an anti-encroachment operation to demolish an illegal shopping mall and a club on the premises of the Aladdin amusement park in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. The civic authorities launched the operation following the Supreme Court’s directives for removal of the Pavilion End Club and stopping all commercial activities on the premises of the park. Enraged at the operation, a large number of shop owners and their employees staged a protest against the demolition of the shops and blocked the main gate of the amusement park. The protesters said the Supreme Court had not ordered demolition of their shops which, they said, were leased out to them by the KMC and are legal. On Monday, the SC directed the local administration to remove the Pavilion End Club and stop all commercial activities on the premises of the Aladdin amusement park in Karachi’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal. The court directed the Karachi administrator to file a compliance report within two days. The directions were given by an apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed while hearing a case related to the shopping centre and club near Aladdin Water Park at the SC’s Karachi Registry.