H Block market in DHA has become a veritable nuisance for the residents of the area who complain about the turtle-esque traffic, haphazard distribution of parking space and inept security measures at the market. The market has more than 200 different food and utility shops and is the biggest market and the largest food hub of the society.
The marketplace, especially on the weekends, borders on a gridlock being overcrowded with visitors. Hassan Malik, a resident of DHA said that the parking space provided by the authorities was useless as its distribution was uneven. “The main problem in the H Block market is the food street, people usually park their car right in front of the shop creating a mess on the main road behind”, he said. He added that the market was crammed with more cars than its standard capacity which was resulting in problems for one and all.
Another resident of DHA Mustafa Malik said that the waiters were the biggest thorns in the way of traffic tranquillity, who were unleashed to hunt down customers. He said that the waiters stopped the cars on the main road and started taking orders on the spot while the protracted queue of cars endured traffic stagnation. “This is the only market I’ve seen in the entire city which has so many waiters working at the same time,” he said, adding that the rivalry among waiters, as to who would manage to ensnare more customers added to the dilemma.
On the other hand the swarmed market was a cause of joy for the restaurant owners. One such owner, Sultan said that the market faced traffic issues but that it was healthy for the shop owners and that the waiters were their main weapons in the quest of entrapping customers . “The waiters actually bring business to us, the more the waiters the more business we get,” said Sultan, adding that if they stopped give a free rein to the waiters in the market then other resultants would cash in on the visitors.
Ali Akbar another business owner revealed an intriguing fact that the DHA residents mostly preferred home deliveries and that it was the outsiders who visited the market. “I started off my business from home deliveries, and now I have a restaurant”, he said and added that most of the residents of the society preferred to stay at home and get what they want instead of getting stuck in a traffic dogfight.
Sohaib Dogar a businessman of the H block market said that the slow traffic did not affect the business much and that in his view the biggest problem of the market was security arrangement. He said that scores of cars had been stolen from the market in daytime as well as during night. “Many vehicles have been stolen from here and this market needs security measures” he stressed.
Zain Mehmood Butt, a resident of L block, which is adjacent to the market, said that the market was made to facilitate the residents of the society but had in fact transformed in to a food hub and an urban center causing a multitude of traffic related issues.
While talking to Pakistan Today the spokesman of DHA said that DHA had formulated rules in the market to avoid traffic problems. He said that the traffic flow was controlled by the authorities and that the management kept a constant eye on the market. He was of the opinion that the market had ample parking space but the trafficking issue was the fault of the visitors as they conveniently chose not to park their cars in the parking lots. “This is the general mindset of people in the city, they usually don’t want to step out of the car or prefer their vehicles to drop them as close as they could get to their destination”, he said.
