KARACHI, Nov 30: Shopkeepers of Karimabad’s Bazaar-i-Faisal and Meena Bazaar have strongly protested over the forcible installation of vending cabins right in front of their shops only to destroy their business.

They expressed their resentment over the continued presence of these vendors “allowed to operate the unscrupulously installed cabins,” since a long period of time during which owners of the considerably expensive shops in the two markets had constantly been losing business, particularly in the Eid season.

They claimed that a large number of the ready-made cabins were brought to the footpaths and their operators were favoured with an obvious intention to snatch shopowners’ legitimate right to earn from their heavily invested trade.

“Apart from adversely affecting our business, the cabin operators have proved to be a permanent nuisance for customers, passersby, visitors, nearby residents, commuters and other people. They have virtually blocked almost all the space meant for pedestrians, most of them women and children,” remarked a group of shopkeepers at Bazaar-i-Faisal.

“Isn’t it unfair that the responsible authorities have resorted to promoting an unhealthy competition between the tax-paying shopkeepers and the cabin-holders? And to upset the shopkeepers further, move have been made to block or divert customers from their way to the shops,” one of them lamented.

Demanding removal of the cabins without any further delay, the shopkeepers suggested that the money, paid by the cabin-holders to the concerned authorities for the road-side business, should be refunded in full so that they did not suffer financial loss.

Meanwhile, well-placed sources told Dawn that the KBCA had finalized its plan aimed at restoring both the footpaths for pedestrians as the seven days notice, served on them before Eidul Fitr for a voluntary wind-up, had already expired.

It was on the instructions of the chief minister’s adviser on local government affairs, Wasim Akhtar, that the KBCA had served notices to the cabin-holders. The notice contained a warning to the defiant cabin-holders that the KBCA could remove any cabin at its owner’s risk.

It may be pointed out that the Gulberg Town Municipal Administration had issued NOCs (No-objection certificates) to about 174 hawkers allowing them to place the cabins along both the footpaths. A total of 135 have already been placed and 110 of them started their business.

Each of the cabin was sold at Rs100,000 and the buyers were given facility to clear the amount in instalments. In addition, each cabin-holder is required to pay Rs1,000 per month under the head ‘land utilization charges’.

Although concerned citizens have been expressing their resentment over the encroachment of both the footpaths of Karimabad on the plea that ‘footpaths are exclusively meant for pedestrians’, the Gulberg Town Administration has reportedly claimed that the strip of land along which the cabins have been placed has neither been shown as footpath nor earmarked for widening of the adjacent road in the Master Plan Department’s map.

However, not only the concerned citizens, but some advisers to the City Nazim, Niamatullah Khan, and officials of the Nazim’s Secretariat also are of the view that even if the strip of land has not been shown as footpath, there is no justification for allowing placement of the cabins there. This strip of land is for all practical purposes being used as footpaths by hundreds of shoppers and pedestrians, they argue.

While sponsoring the business on footpath, the town administration has been promoting the campaign against encroachment within the locality, putting up banners and billboards inscribed with words, ‘Footpaths are meant for pedestrians’.

The shopkeepers have termed the TMA’s policy ‘contradictory’ and ‘based on double standards’.