KARACHI: Most footpaths in busy shopping areas of the city are encroached on by vendors selling all kinds of stuff.

At Zainab Market in Saddar, you have vendors selling caps, belts, socks, gloves, undergarments, shirts and trinkets on the footpaths. Shabbir Hussain, one of them, says there is nothing wrong with this and that he has as much right to be there as anyone else.

“Well, the authorities want money. We pay therefore we are here. The only time when money doesn’t help here is when there are VIPs passing through and we are told to pack up and clear the area for a few hours,” says the man smilingly.

At Bohri Bazaar, Zamurad Khan selling cut pieces with pretty embroidery says he pays Rs40,000 a week to be allowed to stay there. If he can afford to pay so much would he not rather have a proper shop? “O, Baji, come sit with me someday and listen to my sad story. It isn’t easy to own a shop here. It doesn’t just require money. There are so many other requirements, too,” the fellow from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa says.

A little distance from him is Yahya, who sells cone henna, kajal, nail polish, etc. “I haven’t made a sale since this morning, and yesterday I only sold stuff worth Rs80. But I have to give a bribe of Rs250 to the authorities every day in order to be allowed to stay here,” he complains.

A menace taking over the footpaths of Karachi.

Next to him Maulana Shaukat sells towels. He says he is not taking anyone’s space as he has his stuff on display on a parked car. “The car belongs to a shopkeeper nearby who allows me to set shop on it,” he says.

“Basically,” he explains. “The authorities follow this formula of taking bribes from people by calculating the sales they make in a day. That Pathan fellow does very good business so he pays Rs40,000 a week while this poor man here who isn’t doing very well in sales has to pay them Rs250 a day.”

At Clifton most vendors say that they are allowed to go about their business without any problem. “As it is, the authorities close the beach every now and then due to which we are suffering badly, so when we come here on the footpath not many object,” says Abdul Rahim selling second-hand stuffed toys outside the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park.

A cut piece shop at one of the pavements at Bohri Bazaar.

“The vendors are a nuisance for pedestrians as well as motorists. They are everywhere. At Zainab Market, they sell clothes and accessories, at Empress Market they sell fruit, Chinese footwear, etc; at Pakistan Chowk there are the used luggage sellers and all the places have the little eateries selling haleem, biryani, bun kabab, sherbet, etc, anyway. On the footpaths they take the pedestrians’ space who then are seen walking on the roads and come in the motorists’ way. The authorities do nothing about this. They only punish the vendors by throwing away their stuff if they don’t bribe them regularly,” says an observer.

Meanwhile, agreeing that encroachments on pavements is a big menace, Karachi commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui says that somewhere the areas being encroached come under the Karachi Municipal Corporation and somewhere under the various cantonments. “But when taking action against encroachers more focus is on road obstructions as they can be the cause of accidents.

You’ll find them at Clifton as well.

“Of course, when the footpaths have been taken over, the pedestrians too are left with little option but to come on the roads, which the police, cantonments and the KMC’s anti-encroachment department should understand. But then there is also this social angle to all this about people’s livelihood.

“I have a simple option to offer here,” he says. “You see, we have so many weekly bazaars here organised by the KMC, the Bureau of Supply and Prices, the cantonment boards, etc. And these bazaars are organised almost every day in different localities. The vendors can look into selling their goods there. We can also help them by lowering the stall rates if they like.”

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2014