Political pressure? Illegal khokay to stay

Planned CDA crackdown fails to launch due to external, internal pressures

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has not been able to launch a citywide crackdown on illegal kiosks in the capital. The encroachment section of the authority did, however, demolish illegal fish vendors in Sectors G-10 and G-11 on Friday and confiscated their wares.

Crackdowns against illegal kiosks and stalls is a regular activity for the encroachment section of the civic body, but despite this, illegal stalls and kiosks keep cropping up along Islamabad’s roadsides, markets, and on the footpaths and green belts.

A CDA official said there are 485 licensed kiosks in Islamabad which had been built in the 1980s, but there are also hundreds of illegal kiosks, tea stalls, and fish points in different areas, particularly in the G-series of sectors, including G-5, G-6, G-7, G-10.G-11, Aabpara Market, Melody Market, and across Embassy Road. However, the CDA’s enforcement department has been reluctant to take action against these illegal stalls for one reason or the other.

Sources said that the Enforcement Directorate had planned a crackdown on illegal kiosks, but allegedly pressure from the newly-elected Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation held off any meaningful action.

But the problem is not just with the politicians. Sources say some CDA officials also allegedly get regular pay-offs from the operators of illegal kiosks.

In September 2015, the authority had launched a massive operation against kiosks and demolished over 300 kiosks in two days. Some of the razed kiosks were owned by friends and relatives of powerful politicians and bureaucrats and had been operating for several decades. Consequently, the operation quickly drew the attention of parliamentarians.

National Assembly Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi and some other parliamentarians had spoke against the operation and a special committee of the parliament was constituted to conduct meetings with CDA officials. After holding meetings with CDA officials, it directed the civic agency to restore licensed kiosks within three days. The committee had also directed the CDA to formulate a policy to differentiate between legal and illegal kiosks.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2016.