“Shifting the fruit and vegetables market from Kot Lakhpat will amount to economic murder of the traders,” Governor Sardar Latif Khan Khosa said on Friday.
The governor was addressing a ‘restoration ceremony’ for the market.
He was invited to speak at the occasion by the traders. Khosa criticised the Punjab government for taking the decision and said they were being unfair to the traders. He said the traders should be allowed to operate in the area and pledged to order an inquiry into the proposed move.
Khosa assured the traders that the ‘integrity of the market’ would be restored. He said roads around the market would be constructed soon and streetlights would be installed. He said that the Punjab government should not forget those who had voted for it. He said that the market was easily accessible to both the traders and the buyers. Abdur Rasheed Sindu, one of the traders, told The Express Tribune that the Punjab government was unable to justify its plans when they were asked by the High Court. “The government could have persuaded us to shift the market, but cannot force us,” he said. Another trader, Haji Asghar, said shifting was a possibility option provided that the government had provided the traders with proper facilities at the new site. He said the government could not decide the fate of the market and its traders.
“How can they expect us to shift with our stock worth millions of rupees to a place with no proper facility?” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 18th, 2012.
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