Anti-encroachment drive: Traders threaten to take NHA, district administration to court

Claim some influential persons are being spared in the ongoing crackdown.

ABBOTABAD: Traders in Mandiyan, Abbottabad on Monday threatened to protest and take legal action against the National Highway Authority (NHA) and district administration if they do not stop ‘discriminating’ during the ongoing anti-encroachment drive in the city.

Addressing participants of a demonstration at Mandiyan Chowk, local trader Safeer Khan said the NHA and district administration have cleared 55-65 feet of the government’s land from Ayub Medical Complex to Supply Bazaar area. He added authorities have now changed the policy and are asking traders of Gami Adda area on the same road to clear the land by 35 feet on both sides. This, Safeer stressed, was not acceptable.



“Why are the authorities sparing some traders, when everybody should be dealt with equally,” said Adalat Khan, an hotelier who also lost a portion of his land during the operation. He accused the administration of changing policy under pressure from the land mafia and MNA Dr Azhar Jadoon.

Abu Bakar, another shopkeeper from Mandiyan, said traders of his area have lost millions after their shops were demolished, but they did not object to it as they were told that it was only for widening the Mansehra Road. However, he said the authorities were not acting upon a uniform policy and have arbitrarily reduced the width on the sides of the road from 65 feet to 35 feet at a specific point where some influential figures and their cronies were to be affected, inviting widespread criticism.

Traders vowed to launch a protest against the authorities besides taking the NHA and Assistant Commissioner Osama Ahmed Warraich to court. Zahoor Abbasi, Muhammad Shirin, Sardar Siddiqui, Shahid Khan and Abdul Malik were among the prominent traders who spoke to the protesters on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2013.