Despite tall claims of officials of the relevant government departments to have cleared encroachments in Peshawar, most parts of roads, streets and narrow lanes have been turned into mini-bazaars and illegal parking lots with no proper checking by the authorities concerned.

Most busy areas of Peshawar city have been in the grip of encroachers since long, but no serious attention was paid by successive governments to this core issue affecting normal life. Illegal occupation of roads and streets has become a routine in the provincial metropolis where action against the violators is taken off and on, but there is no permanent follow-up plan to maintain the writ of the government and thus encroachers continue to create traffic problems in different areas.

Peshawar being a provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is daily visited by thousands of people in vehicles from various other districts and tribal regions in connection with routine official or private work. It is always difficult to save time by doing many things in a minimum time because of the traffic congestion on main arteries of the city.

No doubt, the provincial government’s initiative against land grabbers, illegal buildings, vendors, particularly in the main city areas, was highly appreciated by all and sundry, except the encroachers.

The government has not only removed encroachments from roads, but also cleared the heritage sites from land grabbers. Peshawar is an old city where thousands of people used to visit the historically important sites, but access always remained an issue for them.

The administration took the initiative to remove the decades-old structures from the busy spots and made movement of public possible. However, the officials did not follow the action and as a result the encroachers again occupied roads and streets making lives of common people miserable.

The worst affected are the main city areas like Ashraf Road, Qissa Khwani Bazaar, City Circular Road, Dabgari, Hashtnagri, Shuba Chowk, Nishtarabad, Pandu Road, Yakatoot, Kohati, Khyber Bazaar, Dalazak Road, Charsadda Road, Rampura and Pepal Mandi where vendors are daily seen occupying portions of roads on both sides.

In case of a single protest demonstration by a few protesters the normal life comes to a standstill as there is no alternate arrangement to facilitate motorists. The City Circular Road has been constructed as an alternate route for traffic in interior city, but this plan also virtually failed to prove useful as it was also occupied illegally by auto-mechanics and handcart pushers. The road is also in dilapidated condition and deep ditches can be seen everywhere, especially near Kohati and Ramdas areas. Another issue is the clogged drains along the roads causing hurdles in smooth flow of traffic, particularly during morning hours. The link of Dabgari is usually found blocked due to a large number of private clinics, medical shops and illegal parking.

Though the provincial government has built an overhead bridge at Hayatabad Township to facilitate the people of the posh locality, there is no plan to ease traffic pressure on main arteries like GT Road, Sher Shah Suri Road, University Road, Charsadda Road and different narrow bazaars. The utility of overhead bridge at Gulbahar is also next to nil due to presence of most of the bus and truck stands at Haji Camp.

Most of road accidents take place near these bus stands because there is no overhead pedestrian bridge and people have to walk on the roads creating hurdles in flow of traffic and putting their lives in danger as well.

This alarming situation has forced the traders and transporters to raise voice against the vendors, handcarts and illegal parking lots. Peshawar is stated to be a hub of illegal vehicles as most of the internally displaced persons from various districts and tribal regions have also shifted their means of transportation along to the city.

Auto-rickshaw Drivers Union president Baz Mohammad Khan told Dawn that over 45,000 rickshaws ply on the city roads daily. He said that most of these vehicles were plying illegally and without permits. Neither police nor transport department ever bothered to take action against them.

He demanded of the provincial government to stop issuing permits to the illegally shifted vehicles and get them away from Peshawar to overcome the traffic issues.

All Pakistan Chambers of Small Traders and Small Industry president Mohammad Ihtesham Haleem told Dawn that drive against encroachers was appreciated by all the people, but the administration failed to fulfil its responsibility in this regard.

An official said that action against encroachers was delayed for some days on the request of shopkeepers’ delegation who had agreed to clear the roads by themselves.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2016