Karachi: Encroachments in Saddar causing interruptions in traffic flow

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Gibran Ashraf
Lack of police support in removing encroachments in the Saddar area is causing interruptions in the traffic flow, adding to the problems of motorists and pedestrians. On the other hand, attempts by the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) to remove pushcarts resulted in a clash in which the City Wardens were fired upon.

Recently, the Sindh government issued an order by which nine streets in Saddar were declared No-Parking zones for a period of 30 days to ease the traffic flow in this sector. This is a part of the greater vision of City Nazim, Syed Mustafa Kamal, to make Saddar a vehicle-free and pedestrian-friendly zone. While the plans for this are being fine tuned, the presence of encroachments in the forms of stalls, pushcarts and parked vehicles are a major obstacle to the concept.

In Saddar, streets face an immense problem of encroachment with Preedy Street near the Hashmi Camera Market opposite Empress Market and Regal Electronics Market on Shahrah-e-Liaquat and Preedy Street being affected the worst by encroachments. On Regal Chowk, the presence of car audio system traders and installers are the biggest cause of traffic bottlenecks. These dealers sell their wares inside the shops but the cars are then parked on the road as the equipment is subsequently installed into the vehicles which takes a few hours to accomplish but ultimately results in traffic jams.

Then there is the chronic trouble with the intersection of Preedy Street and Dr Daud Pota Road, where buses weave an intricate mess which blocks all traffic at the junction. Even when traffic wardens are present, the traffic there is nothing short of a mess.

While removing encroachments in late August, members of the Saddar Town and City Wardens were fired upon by pushcart owners. This led to a law and order situation developing in the area and protests from the pushcart vendors the next day lead to the blocking of Preedy Street. Town Municipal Officer, Saddar Town, Mukhtar, talking to The News said that the duty to remove encroachments fell to his department. “However, the incidents that unfolded in which pushcart vendors opened fire on City Wardens and subsequently caused a law and order situation in the area, we have been advised not to move against encroachers in Saddar without the consent or presence of police,” he said.

Mukhtar has since found this new development stifling to the cause of removing encroachments in Sadder, adding, “The police are not showing us as much support as they did initially and today the encroachments have returned”.

Having been approached by the representatives of the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Party to allow encroachments to remain, the requests were dismissed as something that cannot be permitted. Mukhtar maintains that the lack of police support and the silence of the Karachi Cantonment Board have emboldened the encroachers to stand their ground despite being in the wrong.

At the moment, all matters of enforcement of Section 144, under which the Sindh government has issued the notice, are pending a revision. The police have quite visibly shown its unwillingness to enforce the orders as vehicles park single, double and triple lane in the said areas at will.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=199017