KARACHI: 200 shops come up on encroached land in Malir
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, April 4: The land mafia has illegally built at least 200 shops along the walls of Malir’s main water boosting station in Begum Khursheed Road.
The shops have been built after encroaching upon the footpath of the main road and the vacant space along the wall.
Inquiries revealed that these shops were sold for Rs200,000 to Rs300,000 by the mafia enjoying the blessings of area influentials, where auto-shops, flower shops, etc, had been set up.
Shopkeepers, who had earlier temporarily set up stalls during the last several years and were earning their livelihood, were dislodged by the mafia and the contractors who built the RCC shops and sold them to those who were ready to pay the amount.
In this process, the encroachers managed to create more shops and millions of rupees were minted from the people who wanted to have a shop along the wall of the water boosting station.
Although shopkeepers know that they could be removed in any future anti- encroachment operation, today all shops are occupied.
In some cases, the mafia claimed that they might arrange leases for them in the future.
Some of the shopkeepers said they had to buy shops as they had no other option.
The land mafia, it is learnt, encroached upon this portion of land during the last 10 years with the blessings of the officials concerned in the defunct district municipal corporation and activists of a political party remained active in giving possession of shops.
The emergence of shops on the footpath has further reduced the width of the road, causing problems for motorists and pedestrians.
The area people have demanded early action by the town administration to remove illegal structures and construction in Begum Khursheed Road.
The town administration had recently removed some people from inside the pumping station with the help of the rangers, but they did not chalk out a plan to remove these people occupying the road and the footpath.
Similar encroachments have been set up in several other areas of Malir, including Liaquat Market, Mohammedi Market.
At Liaquat Market, the mafia played havoc with a roundabout and built shops on it, creating traffic bottlenecks.
Area people said the town administration was still silent about the encroachments thriving in the Malir area which had created ugliness in the entire area.
