Encroachments on pavements and roads has made movement around the city a difficult task for both pedestrians and motorists.

The Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) and the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) have time and again made claims that all encroachments will be removed from city and cantonment areas, especially bazaars, in order to ensure the smooth flow of traffic.

However, after most campaigns, stall holders and shopkeepers can be seen displaying their wares on the roads and pavements the very next day.

The civic authorities and the traffic police also often try passing blame for the problem on the other.

“Civic authorities launch their anti-encroachment drives on directives of the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench, and the campaigns are conducted a day or two before the hearing of the case to show the court they are [doing something about the problem,” a senior RCB official told Dawn.

“For many months, the court was expressing dissatisfaction over the encroachments in the city and asked the civic authorities to clear the roads and bazaars of them, but they have yet to do so. If a civic body wants to, no stall holder can install a stall on a road or a footpath,” he said, adding that the situation was better a decade ago when strict action would be taken against encroachers.

Many stakeholders have suggested that stallholders be provided with a separate space to display their goods

“Some RMC and RCB officials are corrupt and take bribes from stall holders and shopkeepers for allowing them to use pavements and roadsides for selling their goods,” said Attiqur Rehman, a resident of Saddar.

“I once tried to park my car in Saddar but the security guards of a shop and a bank stopped me from parking in front of their establishments, but they did not stop stall holders from using the same space for selling their goods,” said another local, Mohammad Anwar.

He said there was no parking spaces in bazaars, which are being ruled by shopkeepers, who unite to defend one another.

The problem is particularly acute in Raja Bazaar and the adjoining markets and taxi drivers refuse to go to Iqbal Road, Bohar Bazaar and Circular Road due to the traffic mess.

Many stakeholders have suggested that stallholders be provided with a separate space to display their goods. In the early 80s, former Rawalpindi Mayor Ghulam Hussein established a market for cart pushers in the Banni Market, but the cart pushers sold their shops allocated to them and are selling their goods on roads and footpaths again.

On the other hand, Traders Association President Shahid Ghafoor Paracha told Dawn that encroachments have been removed from bazaars and that traders support this action.

“In the past, the civic bodies did not pay attention to the issue of encroachments,” he said.

Mr Paracha suggested that the RMC should declare Raja Bazaar and the adjoining markets as pedestrian-only areas and construct a parking plaza with every bazaar. He said the Punjab chief minister had approved the construction of a parking plaza on Jinnah Road, commonly referred to as City Saddar Road.

RCB spokesperson Qaiser Mehmood told Dawn that the RCB had removed encroachments from all cantonment roads and bazaars but the stallholders had returned as soon as the team left.

The RCB then started confiscating the goods of these shopkeepers and stallholders and did not return them.

RMC Chief Corporation Officer Sardar Tashfeen said the RMC staff had cleared Bara Bazaar and adjoining bazaars of encroachments and that the traffic police should not allow stallholders to encroach on roads and footpaths.

Ensuring the smooth flow of traffic is the traffic police’s responsibility, not that of the RMC, he added.

When asked, City Traffic Officer Yousaf Shahid said that it was not the traffic police’s job to remove encroachments and that the RMC and RCB were responsible for this.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2017