KARACHI, March 28: An amenity plot in front of a market belonging to the defunct KDA has been encroached upon in Khokhrapar where several shops have been built by the land mafia.

The 1,000-square-yard plot in Malir Extension remained vacant for a long time till the emergence of a market.

The encroachments began to crop up as more and more shopkeepers became interested in obtaining shops along the 200-foot-wide main Malir Extension Road.

The plot near the Mohammadi Market had been reserved for a park/playground by the defunct KDA, but the plan could not materialize as the area could not be developed at a fast pace and whatever the market structure existed was later encroached upon.

The market remained unutilized for a long time and finally in the early ‘90s, a former area MNA managed to shift an illegal market near his home to this new location.

The market committee, however, indulged in altering the basic structure of the facilities and created more shops within the compound.

Inquiries revealed that the mafia has built over 200 shops on the plot from time to time and sold each for Rs150,000 to Rs300,000 to innocent people.

The construction of shops has deprived area children of the facilities of a park or playground.

Prior to the emergence of the encroachments, regular football matches used to be held there, in which people took great interest.

The land mafia has also encroached upon a piece of land in front of the city government’s primary school near Mohammadi Market.

The construction of shops and emergence of pushcarts along the wall of the school distract the attention of schoolchildren during their studies.

Parents are concerned over this state of affairs and maintain that it has also been one of the reasons for the low enrolment in the school. They regretted that the school authorities have also neglected the issue and unauthorized constructions have been on the rise, leaving very little space for children to pass through.

The area people claimed that all what has happened during the last 12 years in the locality went unchecked and the concerned officials of the civic agencies instead of discouraging encroachments, promoted them as the land mafia enjoyed the blessings of a political party which ruled the area for a long period.

They pointed out that the KMC/DMC vehicles indulged in dumping garbage on the plot prior to the construction of shops and later the garbage was allowed to be burnt, creating a nuisance situation.

They blamed the area market committee for having hands in gloves with the encroachers and added that all this happened before the eyes of the police.

The town administration, they regretted, has not yet moved to vacate the unauthorized constructions at the Liaquat and Mohammadi markets.