Anti-encroachment drive should be impartial: FPCCI

Civic agency continues drive during Eid holidays

ISLAMABAD: The apex body of businessmen in the country has called on the top civic authority of the federal capital to ensure that its ongoing anti-encroachment drive is conducted in an impartial manner even as the civic body continued its drive during the Eidul Fitr holidays.

Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Vice President Muhammad Ijaz Abbasi on Friday said that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) should conduct an impartial anti-encroachment operation in the city.

“The CDA should not only remove encroachments but also pay attention to the beautification of the city and commercial areas,” he said in a statement.

Abbasi noted that selective anti-encroachment operations will only create resentment amongst the public and the business community of the federal capital.

The trading bodies of the federal capital have time and again raised questions over the civic body’s anti-encroachment drive. The traders have accused the civic body of hurting the fragile the investment climate of the city, Abbasi observed.

The FPCCI vice president further claimed that the CDA drive was allegedly benefitting some encroachers while hurting businessmen of the city.

Terming this as unacceptable, he urged the authority to take market committees on-board before conducting any clean-up operation.

Meanwhile, other business leaders including Shahid Zaman Shinwari of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) United Group, former ICST president Malik Nadeem, Khursheed Qureshi, Sarfaraz Mughal and others urged the CDA to conduct impartial operations.

They said that during the recent anti-encroachment drive, CDA officials were violating stay orders issued by various courts of law, thereby, they were in contempt of court.

Encroachment in the capital city is not possible unless CDA staff allows it after taking bribes while the entire city has been put on the mercy of a mafia, they said, adding that people have been allowed to encroach upon footpaths, verandas and even car parks in different markets which should be cleared as it creates problems for the masses.

They accused the city managers of being hand in glove with land grabbers as they have never bothered to question the influential.

The CDA should inform masses about how long it will remain reluctant to retrieve state land worth billions of rupees which had been illegally occupied by powerful people.

CDA anti-encroachment drive

The anti-encroachment teams of CDA razed some newly built encroachment as it conducted several operations during the Eidul Fitr holidays.

The actions against the encroachers were conducted along Murree Road, Bara Kahu, Lake View Park, Play Land near the Margharzar Zoo, Faisal Mosque and inside the slums of Sector G-6/2.

A primary focus of these actions was to remove encroachments from the Right-of-Way (ROW) of the main roads leading towards Murree and other recreational sites of the city to ensure a smooth flow of traffic on Eidul Fitr.

People visit different recreational spots in the Murree hill station during the Eid holidays. As a result, massive traffic jams are seen in Bhara Kahu during this time as encroachers set up their stalls on both sides of the Murree Road.

However, CDA’s anti-encroachment teams, with cooperation from the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration and the Islamabad Police have not only removed these encroachments but also ensured a smooth flow of traffic between Islamabad and Murree.

During the operations, around 12 truck-loads of carts and other goods were confiscated by the CDA teams.

It is pertinent to mention here that the authority had strictly warned people from encroaching on state land on either side of the main roads on Eid days.

Meanwhile, special teams of CDA — constituted for strict vigilance and removal of newly cropped up encroachments in different slums of the federal capital —razed a newly-built, illegal house near the Post Office in Sector G-7.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 8^th, 2019.