Former MPA’s shopping mall sealed

The shops in a shopping mall owned by former PTI MPA Chaudhry Saleem Sarwar Jaura in Gujrat were sealed on Tuesday after dengue larvae were found in the premises.

The sealing was carried out by a team of the district administration, led by Assistant Commissioner Haider Abbas, under the dengue SOPs of the Punjab government.

The team also found that the mall had been constructed on government land. Hundreds of shopkeepers protested the sealing, saying that they had bought the shops and registered them legally. They said that they had been rendered unemployed by the sealing.

Former MPA Jaura said that the construction of the plaza was done in 2002 and all the legal requirements were fulfilled. He said that the sealing was a case of political vendetta.

Deputy Commissioner Gujrat Safdar Virk said that the sealing was done as a preventive measure against dengue. He said that the shopkeepers would be allowed to reopen their shops after the dengue larvae were cleared.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2023.