No Fair Trade: TMA officers attacked by vendors

Protesters demanded that authorities provide them with an alternative business address before demolishing their shops.

MULTAN: The Gulgasht turned into a battlefield on friday when shopkeepers and vendors attacked a team of Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) officers along with regulation town officer, Gulgasht, for an operation against encroachments. Angry traders and vendors pelted stones on the TMA team and also staged a protest against the overall operation. Following the incident, TMO Ali Hassan Jafri issued directives for sealing shops and confiscating carts. He also recommended that the Gulgasht police lodge cases against the traders. Meanwhile, talking to journalists, the protesting traders said that they had been conducting their business in the area for a long time and evicting them was tantamount to their financial destruction.   The protesters demanded that the authorities provide them with an alternative business address before demolishing their shops.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2012.