An impossible task?: Encroachers stay firm in Saddar despite govt efforts

Political influence has seemingly made the proposed traffic-free zone hard to clear of illegal occupation.

KARACHI:

Turning Saddar into a pedestrian zone appears to be an unachievable target for the government as a year and a half on, its drive against encroachments in the area has yet to bear any fruit.

"Every time the drive comes to an end, the encroachers re-establish their makeshift stalls and start their businesses up again within two hours," said Karachi Tajir Ittehad president Farid Paracha.

He said that the 'encroachment mafia' had political influence, which led to the leaders of political parties halting the anti-encroachment drive whenever it began to show results.

"Anyone can see the flags of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Awami National Party and Pukhtunkhwa Milli Party," Paracha claimed, adding that thousands of makeshift stalls stretched from the Saddar Parking Plaza to Empress Market and Regal Chowk. "It seems that the government bows down before extortionists and encroachers."

Syed Muhammad Shakaib, the head of planning and development at the Commissioner Office and the project director for the proposed traffic-free zone, told The Express Tribune that the target of a pedestrian zone was difficult to achieve.

"Removing Saddar's encroachments is a task harder than the construction of the Lyari Expressway," he said. "Our strategy is one of trial-and-error but we will continue our drive to get rid of them."

However, Murtaza Ali, who has a shop in Empress Market, has little hope that the authorities will be able to free the area of encroachments.

"All these officials, whether they are part of the police, the traffic police or the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), take a lion's share of the illegal money circulating here," he alleged.

Ali pointed out that the plan to convert Saddar into a traffic-free zone was prepared on October 22, 2012, with Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan granting Rs100 million for the rehabilitation of historical buildings and the rerouting of the area's traffic.

"Despite this, the plan has yet to materialise," he said. "Why have the KMC, the commissioner and the police failed to implement the plan?"

An official from KMC's anti-encroachment department, meanwhile, disagreed with the allegation that the drive had borne no fruit. "We have established our camps in Saddar and whenever we receive police support, we undertake our operations," he said. "We have removed 50 per cent of the encroachments here."

The anti-encroachment drive turned violent last week, with two people sustaining injuries in the crossfire between the police and the encroachers. Law enforcement personnel had to bring the drive to a halt amid the fear of a harsh reaction from the politically influential encroachers.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2015.