RAWALPINDI, Nov 8: More than 50 persons — 33 vendors and 18 shopkeepers — were arrested from different parts of the city for selling substandard commodities at high prices, a spokesman for the district Nazim said on Friday.

The anti-encroachment drive, led by District Nazim Raja Tariq Kiani, started from Commercial Market, Satellite Town on Friday.

The anti-encroachment staff removed stalls and vendors who were selling food items on footpaths and also occupying road. The 33 encroachers were taken into custody by the police who were accompanying the district Nazim during the campaign, the spokesman said.

Mr Kiani also visited Sabzi market in Raja Bazaar and Banni Chowk and checked the prices of the daily-use items from the consumers.

Taking notice of the public complaint, Tariq Kiani directed the shopkeepers to display price-lists and control prices.

Meanwhile, a cyclist was run over by a passenger bus on Pirwadhai Road on Friday.

The police said a bus (PRP-2685), heading towards Pirwadhai bus stand, hit a cyclist while overtaking a rickshaw and a wagon ahead of it, police said.

The cyclist, who is said to be in his 20s, is yet to be identified by the police. The bus and wagon drivers have escaped from the scene, the police said.