PESHAWAR, Sept 29: Seasonal trade activity, which usually picks up ahead of winter, has failed to get off the ground this time as the shoppers keep away from the bazaars owing to an anti-encroachment operation being carried out along main roads and busy shopping centres in the city.

The market remains sluggish, although the season has set in with the holy month of Ramazan and winter just round the corner, partly because of the election campaign and partly because of the disorder seen in the trading centres, shopkeepers and trade unionists told Dawn on Sunday.

The operation, which was initiated by the provincial government a couple of months back with the aim to remove illegal constructions and expand the road network in the capital city, has produced positive results, as, on the one hand, it has brought down the local unemployment ratio, while on the other, it has given a new facelift to the congested and busy streets of the city.

The labourers, who used to sit idle for hours at various points in the city looking forward to employers, make it a day as they can hardly afford to shirk the much-sought-after opportunity to earn the wages as they reach out to raze difficult portions of illegally-constructed buildings and shops and re-fix the damage. The daily-wagers call the anti- encroachment operation a blessing in disguise.

The customers, mostly women, stay away from the bazaars. The flying dust, working labourers, worried shopkeepers and rubble scattered all over the place make it difficult for the people to move about in the busy streets of the cantonment and along other main arteries of the city, like GT Road and University Road.

The season has, nevertheless, proved a fairly hectic one not only for the shopkeepers, who are mostly pre-occupied with the demolition and reconstruction of shops’ front elevations and the removal of rubble, but also for the customers, who feel unattended to and ignored by the salesmen and avoid to come to the bazaars.

“The business activity could not take off, although it is generally regarded as a wedding season in Peshawar and other areas of the province,” said Alamgir Khan, who runs a jewellery shop in the Saddar bazaar.

The business community in the Saddar area observed a complete strike and kept their shops closed on Aug 24 to force the cantonment board abandon the drive.

However, the operation, which had produced healthy signs for smooth flow of traffic along GT Road, as scores of multi-story buildings and hotels were razed on both the sides, was launched in the cantonment area on Sept 7, following successful negotiations between the trade unions’ representatives and the provincial government.