56 shops built on ‘Pakistan Railways land’ sealed

Vendors say they will take the railways to court.

LAHORE: As many as 56 shops in Raiwind area were sealed by a Pakistan Railways team on Sunday. The raiding team had held that the shops were built illegally on land owned by the PR. However, the vendors running businesses in the shops in front of the Tabligi Jamaat headquarters dismissed the suggestion that they had encroached upon PR land.

The raiding team, led by Divisional Engineer Raja Muhammad Irfan, also removed encroachments from in front of these shops. Talking to the media, Irfan said encroachments had been set up on the land in collusion with Railways’ police officials. He said an inquiry would soon be lodged against officials patronising the encroachers.

Meanwhile, vendors running businesses in the sealed shops staged a protest demonstration and chanted slogans against the PR administration. They dismissed the suggestion that the land was owned by the PR. They said some of the vendors had ownership deeds of the shops and others had rented out the premises from residents of the area. The protesters said they had been running their businesses in the shops for over 40 years. “We will take the matter to a court,” Haji Muhammad Luqman, one of the vendors, said. Others present at the protest had Abdul Ghaffar, Master Azeem, Tariq Saeed, Dr Shareef and Ali Jan.

The PR raiding team sealed four more shops in the area over non-payment of monthly rents.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2015.