PESHAWAR, Aug 24: The Cantonment area shopkeepers observed complete one-day shutter-down strike on Saturday and held protest demonstration against the planned demolition of their shops and houses by the Cantonment Board.

The Markazi Tanzeem Tajraan Rabita Committee — a conglomerate of 26 associations — is protesting against the demolition of their shops by the authorities to widen the road.

On the occasion, the leaders of the shopkeepers pledged to thwart the demolition move planned by the Cantonment Board.

According to Mian Mohammad Akhtar, general secretary of the Tajraan Rabita Committee, the demolition plan of the Cantonment Board authorities was illegal as it had issued no formal notices but had only flouted an advertisement in just one local daily a week ago, asking the shopkeepers to vacate the places on which the shops were located.

First, it had given the deadline of Aug 27 for demolition which was later extended to Aug 30, following a token strike by the stakeholders on Aug 21.

Akhtar said the planned anti-encroachment drive had sent chill down the spines of as many as 4,000 shopkeepers on Saddar Road, Arbab Road, Jinnah Street and Gora Bazaar, etc., besides creating restlessness among the dwellers of hundreds of houses which had also been marked for demolition.

He said most of the shops and houses had been built before the partition and its demolition would render the shopkeepers jobless and the house-owners homeless.

Some of the houses, which were constructed as early as 1930, had also been marked to be razed to the ground, he said, adding that the Cantonment Board itself had converted the area into a congested place by allowing the construction of cabins, which they sold for Rs500,000 or more to the people. Similarly, he said, the authorities had been collecting Temporary Ground Rent (TGR) ranging from Rs3,000 to Rs20,000 per annum from the shopkeepers by allowing them to use the front space of their shops for business purposes. Likewise, fees were collected by the board for car-parking, he further said.

According to the leaders of the shopkeepers’ bodies, they had held meeting with Station Commander of the Cantonment Board a month ago wherein they had accepted all the directives of the board regarding removal of the encroachments.

ANP’S CONCERN: Mean-while, Awami National Party information secretary Haji Mohammad Adeel has expressed concern over the planned demolition of shops in Cantonment area, and has asked the government to defer the plan.