The mosque committee claims it had no choice but to place the wire, after the CCB, and police had been unable to clear the road and footpath. PHOTO: AGHA MEHROZ/EXPRESS
The management committee of a mosque and associated madrassa has placed barbed wire alongside a footpath of the mosque to safeguard it from encroachments.
The move by the management of Jamia Masjid Chungi Number 22 in the area of Chaklala Cantonment Board (CCB) highlights the helplessness of CCB authorities in removing encroachments and hawkers from the road adjacent to the mosque.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Raja Muhammad Asif, in-charge of the mosque committee, said they had no choice but to place the barbed wire.
He added that time and again, the cantonment board authorities, the RA Bazaar Police, and traffic police had been requested unsuccessfully to clear the road and footpath.
Asif said that there had always been confusion between the Chaklala and Rawalpindi cantonment boards over the jurisdiction of the intersection of Chungi Number 22.
He noted that the mosque committee had also requested hawkers to stay away from the gate of the mosque, but to no avail. He said the cantonment authorities would remove pushcarts one day, but the hawkers would re-emerge the next day.
“The mosque committee decided to install the barbed wire some six months ago, following the inability of the CCB to remove encroachments from the pavement and road,” said Bashir Khan, a local resident.
Khan said that the mosque committee and the prayer leader had made repeated requests to the municipal authorities to remove the encroachments, and keep access to the mosque unhindered.
He said that the committee had decided to secure the footpath after the CCB authorities failed to remove fruit vendors and pushcarts.
“It becomes difficult to enter the mosque at prayer time due to hawkers and pushcarts,” he said.
Muhammad Yasin, a hawker who has been selling fruits on his pushcart for 20 years, said the cantonment authorities needed to allocate some area for fruit sellers. He noted that the intersection was a very busy place, making it ideal for selling fruit.
He stressed that the hawkers were very poor people, and earning their livelihood from selling fruits. They cannot afford to stop selling fruits as there are no other choice and means of earning.
Yasin said that there was a vacant area near the intersection in the limits of the RCB. He said that the authorities had set up a public transport station on the vacant plot.
He suggested that there was still enough vacant space to accommodate some 200 pushcarts.
Regarding the presence of a fruit and vegetable market near the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in the CCB limits, Yasin said that there was not enough space to accommodate more vendors as well.
When contacted, DSP Iqbal Kazmi said that the police had always supported the CCB and the RCB authorities whenever they asked for help in removing encroachments from the area.
Chaklala Cantt Board Vice-President Raja Irfan Imtiaz said that the pushcart hawkers had become a ‘mafia’.
He said that when cantonment’s anti-encroachment staff visited the area, the hawkers would disappear, only to emerge again later.
In response to a question, Imtiaz said that the authorities had already set up a fruit and vegetable market for vendors. He noted that the hawkers, despite, having stalls inside the market, had been selling fruits on pushcarts and pick-up vans.
Imtiaz added that the authorities had started establishing a mini park at an open space near the CMH. In addition, he said the CCB had sought the police’s help in permanently removing encroachments from the busy intersection.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 1st, 2016.
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