Model Bazaar: Differences between MPA, MNA delay project
Constructed eight months ago, market is yet to start functioning.
LAHORE:
A Model Bazaar, set up in Sahiwal eight months ago, has yet to start operating.
The reason of the delay, according to an Industries Department official, is differences between an MPA and an MNA, both belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
The 25-kanal bazaar set up at the old GTS Terminal in Sahiwal cost around Rs28.3 million. It is one the six Model Bazaars set up, as part of a pilot project, by the Industries Department across the province. Two of these bazaars were established in Lahore with 761 stalls each and one each in Gujranwala (550 stalls), Sahiwal (204 stalls), Bahawalpur (210 stalls) and Rawalpindi (200 stalls). A total of Rs246 million was spent on setting up the six bazaars.
The bazaar will be managed by a Bazaar Welfare Organisation. According to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, both MPA Malik Nadeem Kamran, who also heads the district Anjuman-i-Tajiran, and MNA Pir Imran Shah wanted their men on the committee. Pir Imran Shah claimed that Malik Nadeem Kamran was the one “creating hurdles”. Kamran wants to accommodate his aides in the Bazaar Welfare Organisation, Shah said. He denied allegations that he wanted his own men on the committee, saying, “I want the members of the Bazaar Welfare Organisation to be nominated on merit.”
Malik Nadeem Kamran, the provincial Zakat and Ushr minister, called Shah’s allegations “mere propaganda”. He said the bazaar had been planned poorly, “Local vendors were not willing to shift their shops and I could not persuade them otherwise,” Kamran added.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 5th, 2012.
A Model Bazaar, set up in Sahiwal eight months ago, has yet to start operating.
The reason of the delay, according to an Industries Department official, is differences between an MPA and an MNA, both belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
The 25-kanal bazaar set up at the old GTS Terminal in Sahiwal cost around Rs28.3 million. It is one the six Model Bazaars set up, as part of a pilot project, by the Industries Department across the province. Two of these bazaars were established in Lahore with 761 stalls each and one each in Gujranwala (550 stalls), Sahiwal (204 stalls), Bahawalpur (210 stalls) and Rawalpindi (200 stalls). A total of Rs246 million was spent on setting up the six bazaars.
The bazaar will be managed by a Bazaar Welfare Organisation. According to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, both MPA Malik Nadeem Kamran, who also heads the district Anjuman-i-Tajiran, and MNA Pir Imran Shah wanted their men on the committee. Pir Imran Shah claimed that Malik Nadeem Kamran was the one “creating hurdles”. Kamran wants to accommodate his aides in the Bazaar Welfare Organisation, Shah said. He denied allegations that he wanted his own men on the committee, saying, “I want the members of the Bazaar Welfare Organisation to be nominated on merit.”
Malik Nadeem Kamran, the provincial Zakat and Ushr minister, called Shah’s allegations “mere propaganda”. He said the bazaar had been planned poorly, “Local vendors were not willing to shift their shops and I could not persuade them otherwise,” Kamran added.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 5th, 2012.