‘Illegal’ transport offices destroyed in operation

Office owners say government officials ‘guilty of contempt of court’.

RAHIM YAR KHAN:

Around a dozen illegal bus and wagon offices were destroyed on Tuesday in an anti-encroachment operation in Khanpur Adda.

At least three wagons and a coach were also seized during the operation and impounded. The government teams also pulled out the tents housing the makeshift offices and threw away the chairs and tables. Hot words were exchanged between the government officials and the management.

Motor Vehicles Examiner Shafique Qamar and Regional Transport Authority Secretary Farooq Qamar supervised the anti-encroachment operations with help from TMA and Traffic Police teams.

Officials, who were part of the operation, said that a number of illegal bus and wagon offices had mushroomed near Shamim Petroleum Service and Alyani Petroleum, both located in Khanpur Adda.



Managers of the transport offices called the operation “illegal”. They said that the offices had been set up on private property. They denied that the makeshift structures were causing inconvenience to commuters or the public, saying that they were providing a facility to people by ensuring they had easy access to transport.

Alyani Petroleum management said that they had obtained a stay order from the court against any anti-encroachment operation by the local government. “Shafique Qamar, Farooq Qamar and Traffic Inspector Farrukh Bukhari have committed contempt of court by conducting the operation,” they said.



The managers of the transport offices said that the furniture that had either been destroyed or seized by government officials was worth “hundreds of thousands of rupees”.

They also accused government officials of taking some of the furniture home.

Bukhari denied the allegations, saying that the operation had been legal and that it was only illegal stands and offices that they had removed. “DCO Nabeel Javed and DPO Sohail Zaffar Chattha are overseeing the operations,” he said, “which are being conducted to make the town cleaner and the roads wider.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2012.