KARACHI:
Walk down almost any market road in the city, and you will notice that there is no footpath at all anymore. The pavement belongs to fruit carts, clothing stalls, tea stands and parked motorcycles. The pedestrians are pushed onto the road where they have to try and keep up with the traffic to get from one shop to another.
Even though this is not a new problem, it just keeps getting worse. The vendors are not the villains either as most are simply trying to make a living from a system that hasn’t allowed them a proper legal space to do so. The issue with the municipal authorities is that they allow this practice to thrive then act astonished when the footpaths disappear altogether.
Fixing this is easy. Many other cities have created vending zones, enforced boundaries and given vendors space to function. But here, we have a series of periodic ‘clean-up drives’ that do nothing in the longer run.
This city deserves functionality and space to walk, especially for the elderly, children and persons with disabilities.
Hamza Javed
Haripur
