March 11, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 2, 1429

KARACHI, March 10: Most roadside nurseries in different parts of the city have encroached upon footpaths, compelling pedestrians to walk on roads amidst the deluge of speeding vehicles at considerable risk to their lives.

The menace of roadside encroachments, illegal occupation of footpaths and violation of pedestrians’ rights by vehicle owners is assuming an alarming proportion. Due to non-availability of footpaths, accidents involving pedestrians have increased tremendously.

A number of footpaths have already vanished while others have been encroached upon heavily. A few others are being surrendered for widening of roads.

There are no footpaths on either side of S.M.Taufiq Road (starting from Liaquatabad No 10 to Liaquatabad Super Market). Besides, its vast portion often remains illegally occupied by make-shift stalls, vendors and pushcarts selling merchandise and fruit, thus causing inconvenience to market visitors and creating obstacles in the smooth flow of vehicular traffic.

A number of nurseries have sprung up on the central island of some busy roads in North Nazimabad, forcing pedestrians to walk along these nurseries to cross the busy roads putting their lives at risk.

Similarly, almost the entire footpath of main University Road (from Hassan Square to Ashfaq Memorial hospital) has been heavily encroached upon by eateries.

With the mushroom growth of car showrooms on New M.A. Jinnah Road and Khalid Bin Waleed Road, pedestrians do not find footpaths to walk on. Besides, both roads have been tapered with showroom cars parked there. On Jamshed Road, auto workshops, silencer-repairing and battery shops have taken their chunk of footpaths, leaving pedestrians with no option but to walk on roads.

Pedestrians can also be seen walking on Shaheed-i-Millat Road because there is no footpath on its either side. To the surprise of many, a number of nurseries are doing business on both sides of the busy road while commuters wait on the first lane of road for buses.