BAHAWALNAGAR: Illegal vehicle stands in the city continue to operate without any check.

Citizens have complained to the district administration about the inconvenience these vehicle stands have been creating for pedestrians and traders.

Speaking to this correspondent, Rana Muhammad Saqib, Chaudhry Muhammad Ahmed, Rao Dilshad Ahmed Naveed, Mehmood Bashir and others alleged that dozens of illegal bus, wagon and car stands were operating in the heart of the city causing traffic mess and making the lives of the people miserable.

They said that in some areas, residents without any permission had established motorcycle stands for minting money.

They said most problems were being created owing to excessive number of rickshaws as most of them plied city roads without number plates and had established their own parking zones across the city. The double parking of vehicles was another issue which also needed immediate attention of the authorities concerned, they added.

They said chaotic traffic scenes on thoroughfares showed that there was no system to streamline the flow of traffic, at least at the intersections. Besides, encroachers had also made residents’ lives miserable, they said, adding that either shopkeepers had stretched their businesses to the footpaths or vendors occupied the pavements almost on every road.

Sources told Dawn that the administration while responding to citizens’ complaints had announced several times that it would shift the D-Class vehicle stands to the General Bus Stand near Chishtian’s bypass road. It announced in September last that the officials would remove the unauthorised vehicle stands from the city but it failed to implement its orders.

Sources said the owners and contractors of vehicle stands got away with the illegal act by greasing the palms of officials.

FOUND UNCONSCIOUS: A trader was found unconscious at Arifwala on Tuesday -- a day after he was kidnapped by four armed men and robbed of valuables.

Rao Waseem said his brother Rao Faheem, a pharmacy owner, was returning home after closing his outlet around 9:30pm on Monday. He said that when Faheem reached near the bridge of a drain, four armed car riders stopped him and deprived him of Rs276,000 and ATM cards. The robbers, he said, bundled Faheem into a car and threw him near Arifwala in an unconscious condition after administering injections to him.

He said passersby shifted Faheem to hospital at Arifwala where he was being treated.

The Dunga Bunga police said a case had been registered and they were investigating.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2021