Vendors of Islamabad and Rawalpindi continue to carry out their business activities on footpaths, causing hardships for both pedestrians and motorists.
Dozens of vendors, selling various items including used clothes, shoes, toys, fruits and food items have set up moveable and non-moveable stalls which had become irksome for the residents of the twin cities.
Various markets, including Aabpara, Faizabad, Melody, Karachi Company, Commercial Market, Saddar, Raja Bazaar and other parts of the city are rife with encroachments.
The growing encroachments were not only marring the beauty of both the cities but were also damaging roads, causing hardships for pedestrians and motorists alike.
Atta Muhammad, a stallholder at Aabpara, while talking to APP said that he had set up a stall on a footpath, as he had no other option due to the sky rocketing rents.
While justifying his illegal practices, Atta Muhammad said, “We have to earn bread for our families.”
“I set up my stall in this market because I had no other place to do business,” he added.
However, residents of Sector G-6 complained that shopkeepers were misusing footpaths.
When contacted, an official of Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) Anti-Encroachment Department maintained that they were still conducting anti-encroachments drives and seizing the encroaching items.
“Traders needed to cooperate with the CDA to eradicate encroachments,” he said.
He added that the enforcement directorate of CDA regularly visited different areas of the city and confiscated stalls of encroachers.
