KARACHI: An anti-encroachment drive in the metropolis’ Saddar area entered its seventh day here on Sunday.
During the operation, shops located in the bird market, cloth market and dried fruit market were removed using heavy machinery. Director Anti-Encroachment Cell of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, Bashar Siddiqui, has said that more than 900 shops have been razed in Saddar during the ongoing drive against encroachments.
Speaking to media here, he said there were parks around 50 years ago outside Empress Market where shops had been built. ‘We are now going to restore the place in its original shape,’ he added.
He informed that parks would be constructed at all the places in Saddar where shops were demolished. He said encroachments inside the Empress Market would also be removed. “We will also constitute a task force to prevent encroachments from springing up again in future.”
Talking to media outside Empress Market on Sunday Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar said that anti-encroachment operation will restore Karachi to its natural and historical beauty.
Wasim Akhtar said the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation would build parks at places where illegally-built shops have been demolished during an anti-encroachment drive.
Akhtar said the prime minister must have been happy with the drive against encroachments. “The PM himself asked me to get all those encroachments removed,” said Mayor Karachi. He told that media that the operation against encroachments began at 7am and it had been
winded up successfully.
He said that the 30-year-old contract between KMC and the markets have been terminated therefore it was important to demolish, now parks will be made on that land to restore Empress Market to its original state.
Akhtar informed that affectees of operation will be provided with an alternative place and a committee has been formed for this purpose. He added, “We do not want to affect anyone’s business and we will not repeat the mistakes of the past.”
The Supreme Court on Oct 27 ordered that the illegal encroachments in the metropolis be removed within the next 15 days. NNI