ISLAMABAD: The Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI), which has administrative control of the H-9 Sunday market, does not have the funds to restore 109 stalls damaged in a fire at the bazaar on Wednesday.

Stallholders whose businesses were destroyed in the fire protested before the mayor’s office on Thursday, demanding compensation for the damage caused by the fire.

They also met with Chief Metropolitan Officer Syed Najaf Iqbal and other MCI officers and urged the MCI to re-establish their business, but were informed that the MCI did not have the budget to carry out any repairs.

Various options were discussed at the meeting. The chief metropolitan officer hinted that the stallholders could have the repairs done on their own, and participants also said that if the MCI is responsible for carrying out repairs, it would have to go through an auction because it has no funds.

Meeting of affected shopkeepers, MCI officials mulls options to repair stalls

“Various options came under discussion. We discussed if the stalls can be restored by shopkeepers on their own... We also discussed, in the event that the MCI goes for a tendering process to restore and re-establish new stalls, how it would pay contractors,” Mr Iqbal said.

“Actually, we don’t have funds and that’s why we are in trouble. We are mulling various options to get the repairs done as soon as possible,” he added.

There are various technicalities involved in this project, he said. If shopkeepers rebuild their stalls “we will not consider their claims in the future and they will have to submit affidavits”.

Mr Iqbal said a final decision has not been made yet, but matters will be finalised at the next meeting.

An MCI official told Dawn that shopkeepers at the meeting said they had lost millions of rupees in the fire, as every shop contained goods with an estimated worth of over Rs500,000.

Wednesday’s was the second fire at the Sunday bazaar in the last year.

A fire last August destroyed over 500 stalls, and the damage – despite assurances from then Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman and mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz – has yet to be repaired, with the file work falling victim to red-tape.

“The file of the previous work is lying with the engineering wing, as the CDA estimated repairs would cost over Rs40 million,” H-9 Sunday market in-charge Raja Abid said. He added that most of the affected shopkeepers had rebuilt on their own.

The market is prone to short circuits, with more than 2,800 stalls in which most shopkeepers have placed uninterrupted power supply batteries because the CDA and MCI have failed to provide them with electricity despite repeated requests.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2018