The traders burnt tyres and blocked the traffic on Gulberg’s Main Boulevard from 3 pm to 4 pm. They chanted slogans against the government for making the area in front of their shops a no parking zone. The traders were holding a banner which read ‘Stop our financial murder’.
Traffic police, however, were able to divert the traffic to alternative routes.
Shopkeeper Aslam Saleem said that they were not trying to undermine the efforts of the Punjab government but there was no need to restrict parking to the plaza. He said women drivers, especially, did not like the plaza as they dislike driving in loops.
Irfan Iqbal Sheikh, owner of Al-Fatah and a member of the Liberty Traders Union, said that very soon they would have to close shops due to the lack of business since the opening of the plaza.
He said 50 per cent of business had been lost. He said they had to go on a strike on Friday after the failure of talks with the government. He said they had been continuing this strike since the last 12 days.
Sheikh said the Park and Ride Plaza had 80 shops and two restaurants inside it.
He said when they shops were sold the plaza would fill its parking space.
He said even if cars were forced to park inside the plaza there would be no space as the capacity was limited to 300 cars. He wondered why the government was jeopardising the Rs7 billion annual trade especially since the plaza was supposedly made for the convenience of traders.
The protesters dispersed peacefully after talks with Sadar and Gulberg Circle DSPs. Traffic police officials said the plaza was great help as few parked cars meant traffic no longer clogged up the roads at around 4 pm as it used to do before.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 8th, 2011.
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