KOHAT: The wholesale commission agents at the government-owned fruit and vegetable market have shifted their businesses to an illegally-run private market after getting shops at subsidised rates at the government facility, which is causing huge loss to the tehsil municipal administration each month, according to sources.

The other reason of the failure of the government-owned facility is that 75 out of 108 shops have been sold to the irrelevant investors, who have nothing to do with fruit and vegetable business, to help recover the cost of the market.

The market spread over 65 kanals was constructed at a cost of over Rs70 million in 2010.

The contractor, Chaudhry Khurram Zaman, who left the market incomplete and got settled in London, has been declared as absconder by the court.

However, after winning the case in the high court, he has given attorney to his son to fight the case in lower court.

Former president of the Kohat Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Haji Rasheed Paracha, told Dawn that under an agreement the contractor, former district nazim Gohar Saifullah Bangash and the TMA officials had decided to accommodate all the wholesalers at cheap rate of Rs300,000 which had cost the builder Rs700,000 per shop.

He said rest of the shops sold to people who were common investors for Rs1.3 million because commission agents were not interested in all the 108 shops. Of the total shops 33 were sold to the commission agents. But the wholesalers committed fraud and after getting shops at cheap rates moved to the private market. They have also let shops on rent.

Sources said president of bazaar association, Sher Khan, former tehsil municipal officer Noor Daraz Khattak and others cheated the contractor and the TMA.

The president of the government market, Fayyaz Khan said despite court orders against the private market it was being patronised by politicians. He said unless it had been closed the government market could not become successful.

He demanded that the police register cases against the Afghan refugees to discourage them from investing money in the ‘illegal’ market.

SCHOOLS’ REOPENING SOUGHT: The Private Education Association Kohat has said that they would follow the SOPs if given permission to open the schools and colleges.

Addressing a press conference at Kohat Press Club, the association’s president Rab Nawaz, vice chairman Arab Khan and vice president Naseer Khan flayed the government for not giving relief to the education sector.

They said teachers of private schools had also suffered due to lockdown and should be provided loans without interest to keep their kitchens running.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2020