Banners up against anti-encroachment campaign

LAHORE – Traders have finally decided to rise against the anti-encroachment operation by displaying banners on main roads. The banners hanging on various roads including GT Road and Shalimar Link Road bear the demands that traders and shopkeepers be saved from officials of Town Administration involved in monthly extortion, and that towns should get rid of corrupt officials who target only a section of traders and allow those who oblige them with bribes.
The banners oppose the removal of sign boards installed at shops. “Sign boards have been erected on buildings and are not obstructing the ‘right of way’. They are not part of encroachments but CDGL’s top-brass took an unwise decision and started pulling down publicity boards,” said Muhammad Ali, a trader of Quomi Tajar Itihad Board. The banner drive in opposition to a grand operation launched by the CDGL on March 11 is different from previous drives.
It has completely distanced itself from any political associations, which shows that merchandisers feel that political attachment to one party could damage their business interests. Through exhibition of banners, traders have sought immediate attention of PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif, President Asif Ali Zardari, Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif and even the Lahore High Court chief justice.
Asghar Butt, a trader at GT Road Market, told Pakistan Today that there was no disagreement on the launch of the encroachment drive but knee-jerk action could not produce the results. He said that traders were not taken into confidence and the operation was kick-started at once. Shalimar Town Administrator Amir Ahmed Khan said that CDGL’s drive was going on across the board.
“In the past, MPAs and MNAs used to assert their undue authority to bring the drive to a halt but this time it will not be affected by any political pressure,” he said. “Banners have been displayed by those elements who tried to use political pressure to stop the operation. When no one noticed them, they were frustrated and resorted to hanging banners as a last resort,” he said.
Qaumi Tajar Itehad Finance Secretary and Mall Road Traders Association General Secretary Qazi Aftab said that CDGL officials had turned the city into a jungle of encroachments and now they were active to clean out the mess they created themselves. Terming the drive ‘ill-planned’, he said that it was a point-scoring game and CDGL officials were only ‘appeasing the Punjab CM’.
Qazi said that Naeem Mir, head of PML-N (trader wing) and Mall Road Trader Association president, had no interest in freeing the area from squatters. Mir wanted to be an MPA and for this, he assured Punjab CM of the ‘so-called success’ of the encroachment operation. He accused the CDGL of not taking traders associations on board.
“We were just informed that the CM wanted the city cleared of encroachments and CDGL has no time to consult the issue in detail,” he added. He proposed forming a ‘special encroachment committee’ comprising all stakeholders that will be responsible to check the menace on a permanent basis. Jail Road Traders Association Press Secretary Rizwan Goriya also cursed the government for not consulting the traders’ associations before the launch of drive, saying it was not a operation against encroachment instead it was a ‘error-ridden drive’ meant to satisfy the chief minister.
Sources in CDGL disclosed that some officials recommended strict legislation followed by a foolproof strategy before the start of the encroachment drive, but top bureaucrats discouraged the suggestions and launched it without anticipating a backlash. They did not realize that failure of the drive would bring a bad name to the government, sources maintained.
A Ferozepur Road Trader Association office bearer said that it was like the previous drive in which the government’s machinery including the commissioner, provincial secretaries, DCO, Task Force chairman, WASA, TEPA and LDA launched the operation with much fanfare. Last time, the city was divided into three sectors. Sector I included Data Gunj Buksh Town, Shalimar Town and Ravi Town, Sector II included Gulberg Town, Aziz Bhatti Town, Wagha Town and Sector III included Samnadbad Town, Allama Iqbal Town and Nishtar Town.
Three squads were provided with front-end loader, two dumpers, one truck and other technical stuff, and soon after the anti-encroachment operation, encroachers reemerged on the same spots.