Boulton Market shopkeepers go to court

Case revolves around shopkeepers of Boulton market who were displaced by a road-widening project.

KARACHI: Notices were issued to the advocate general Sindh, Provincial Police Officer (PPO),  Sindh home secretary, Administrator, City District Government Karachi (CDGK) and a number of police officials for Oct 26 by a division bench of the Sindh High Court in a plea by shopkeepers of Boulton market who were displaced by a road-widening project.

The bench, headed by pusine judge (senior most) Justice Mushir Alam, had earlier heard the counsel for petitioners Lala Moosa and seven others who submitted that the CDGK officials had demolished their shops partly to widen the road. Stating that their shops are adjacent to Kharadar police lines and for months they had waited for business to go back to normal.

According to the petitioner, after the project was completed, they attempted to renovate their shops which were reduced in size as a result of the expansion of the road but the SHO Kharadar, an answering respondent in the instant petition, came with the police and stopped them from carrying out repairs and renovation.

The petitioners asked the court to restrain the police officials from interfering in the renovation and repairs so they could go back to earning a living again.

The bench, after the preliminary hearing, ordered for pre-admission notice to be issued to the respondents for Oct 26.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2010.