RAWALPINDI, Dec 21: Shopkeepers devastated by the fire in Ghakkar Plaza were Sunday promised alternative places by the City District Government and the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) to rebuild their businesses from the ashes.

Station Commander Brig Sajjad Azam, who is also president of RCB, told mediapersons after the two bodies mutually reached the decision that the devastated shopkeepers would be offered two sites on temporary basis for six months.

One would be the site of the gutted Ghakkar Plaza after it had been cleared and the other was yet to be selected, he said.

Dawn learnt from informed sources that the other site could be the vacant ground of Mrs Davis Hotel, the colonial era hotel which was situated between Bank Road and Haider Road and was demolished several years ago.

Though the alternative business place was demanded by ruined shopkeepers, the question remains where from they would get the capital to restart their businesses?

Only a minority of the small shopkeepers who saw their livelihoods go up in flames entertains the hope that government would assist them.

City MNA Hanif Abbasi, himself a trader, said after lengthy negotiations with the office-bearers of Anjuman-i-Tajiran Bank Road that Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif would announce a special package for the affected shopkeepers of Ghakkar Plaza.

A list of affected shopkeepers, with the estimate of their losses, to be sent to Mr Sharif would form the basis of the special package, the PML-N MNA told newsmen.

“I am unable to calculate the loss I have suffered,” said Mohammad Ziaullah, President of Ghakkar Plaza Shopkeepers Association, who owned two floors of the ill-fated plaza.

Meanwhile, the Anjuman-i-Tajiran Cantonment has announced the creation of a Rs500,000 fund to provide financial assistance to the small shopkeepers of Ghakkar Plaza to pick up their shattered lives and restart their businesses.

Shaikh Hafeez, president of the Anjuman, told newsmen that the owner of Ghakkar Plaza, Raja Shahid Zafar, had assured him that he considered all shopkeepers to be his family and each one would be accommodated in the new plaza to be raised at the site.

An emergent meeting representing the entire business community of Rawalpindi held on Sunday formed a committee to estimate the losses suffered by the Ghakkar Plaza victims.

It was called by the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) and attended by all the associations of traders of Rawalpindi cantonments and city. The committee was asked to submit its report to the chamber in the next few days.

The meeting also formed three delegations to apprise the president, the prime minister and the Punjab chief minister of the huge losses suffered by the business community in the tragedy. The delegations will be led by Syed Asad Mashhadi, RCCI president, and includes trade organisations and local MNAs and MPAs.

In the meantime, the business community would approach owners of three newly-built commercial plazas lying vacant in the city and cantonment to accommodate the uprooted shopkeepers of Ghakkar Plaza.

RCCI President Asad Mashhadi told Dawn that a fund had been set up to offer assistance to small shopkeepers of Ghakkar Plaza. The fund will be contributed by the entire business community of Rawalpindi.