PESHAWAR: Representatives of business community have objected to the route of proposed metro bus in Peshawar and demanded of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to change the plan otherwise they will be forced to move court against it.

In a joint statement issued here on Sunday, Sarafa Jewellers Association president Haji Aurangzeb, senior vice president Tahir Khan and Youth Front Pakistan chairman Gul Ghani Khan said that the proposed route of metro bus would badly affect major portions of different bazaars. They said that they would not allow construction of the route if they were not taken on board.

The traders alleged that the plan had been finalised by bureaucracy without taking the local residents and business community into confidence which had caused serious unrest among them.

The traders’ representatives urged Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to take notice of the public complaints, convene a meeting of the stakeholders so that they could share their views in finalisation of the plan with mutual understanding.

The provincial government, they said should review the metro bus plan to avoid any complication and inconvenience to citizens. They added that if the citizens were not taken on board, the traders’ bodies and local residents would convene a meeting to devise a strategy for protection of their houses, shops and workplaces.

As public representatives CM Pervez Khattak, minister for local government and planning Inayatullah Khan and MPA Shaukat Yousufzai are duty bound to take notice of our complaints and review the plan, the traders’ leaders said.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2017