LAHORE: “I’ve suffered huge losses multiple times because the metropolitan corporation teams suddenly appear, remove my counter from outside the shop, destroy it and don’t even compensate for it. I’ve to first pay a fine to get its remains back from the corporation and then get it fixed, all of which takes days during which my business remains closed and costs me around Rs12,000. I don’t even make this much money a month,” lamented Amjad, a roadside fast food vendor in the Chah Miran area.

Amjad is one of many such vendors and pushcart owners who have had their infrastructure removed during the joint ‘traffic load management’ drive of the Metropolitan Corporation Lahore (MCL) along with traffic police, Lahore Development Authority and other departments under way over the past few months on 24 major roads of the city.

While the authorities claim their only objective is to ensure smooth flow of traffic and they would remove anything that hampers vehicular movement, most of the affectees are small vendors who don’t own proper shops and only rely on their makeshift counters, kiosks, stalls and carts to eke out a living. Once these are snatched from them, they do everything in their limited means to resume business.

Amjad says the anti-encroachment teams never warn or issue prior notices.

“My counter was just a few inches over the footpath, still they picked it up and smashed it. I have no other source of income so I had to pay the fine, get its pieces back and have it repaired,” he says.

A lemon soda seller in the Thokar Niaz Baig area has a similar tale to tell.

“All of us in the area got our counters back after paying fines between Rs2,000 and Rs5,000 and resumed our business at the same spot,” says Zeeshan, also speaking for the halwa puri, gol gappay and other vendors around him.

When asked if they have any objection to moving away from the roadsides to dedicated spots, he says it’s not about alternate locations.

“They bother us everywhere. These officials only want money no matter where we set up our stalls. When they run out of money, they look for setups to raid on. They even take monthly bribe from us on the pretext of sparing us the raids, yet remove our counters. Even traffic isn’t an issue. We have wide roads in Lahore; it’s all about money,” the vendor tries to make a case for him.

Roadside vendors and pushcart owners in Mughalpura, The Mall and Lakshmi Chowk all resumed their activities at their original locations after paying a few thousands in fine just a couple of days after their setups were removed by the administration. These ordeals raise multiple questions – the efficacy of such drives; absence of dedicated spaces for these low-income traders where they don’t create ‘traffic nuisance’, as the authorities claim; need to create awareness among them; lack of urban planning and an encroachment policy, and standardised times for roadside businesses among others.

While the local administration says it doesn’t want to disturb the roadside business in a country where social welfare is booming and would rather adjust them appropriately, development experts say city management and not master planning is urgently required.

Ali Abbas Bukhari, the chief metropolitan officer, tells Dawn no poor person has been targeted but only illegal parking and bus stands, stalls and construction material shops. As for roadside vendors, only those that create repeated traffic nuisance are removed.

“First we surveyed illegal parking stands on each road, and then removed them, registered cases against shopkeepers, and also sealed many shops. Since it’s a traffic load management drive, anything that hampers smooth flow will be removed, and we have somewhat succeeded in our target on the 24 roads we selected but it’s a continuous process.”

When asked if roadside vendors could be allocated a particular space where they can smoothly operate from without hindering traffic flow, he says fancy model pushcarts for Rs50,000 each have been designed with the help of philanthropists.

“Footpaths should be cleared either way and timings could be assigned to them to begin their activities in the evening, as our regulations say. We have set up 50 so far at five spots and will gradually replace the remaining also as is the practice around the world. We have tried to model some markets on this pattern, including Moon Market in Iqbal Town and Gulshan-i-Ravi, and plan to replicate this in other markets. This is just the beginning because there must be around 3,000-4,000 such vendors around Lahore,” he explained.

An MCL official, who didn’t want to be named, admits that besides fines, the vendors pay monthly bribe to the corporation officials and, in many cases, the shopkeepers and residences outside which these counters are set up are also involved as well as area unions.

“Besides, if all traffic wardens deputed in an area perform their duties, half the problems will be solved,” he remarked.

Noted economist and vice chancellor of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Dr Nadeemul Haque, is of the idea that master planning of cities is nonsense and it’s just a way for consultants to make money. In the absence of many facilities like spaces for walking and cycling to cut down on pollution, what’s needed is city management.

“Master planners decide how you and I are going to live; nobody can decide that because if cities can be planned, so can the countries. There’s a shortage of all kinds of facilities but loads of space for cars and then we say kiosks and counters or tables and chairs outside a small hotel are encroachments. What we need is city management. They need to manage their own services and the way they work, and not manage people,” he asserts.

Mr Haque tells Dawn the administrators need to “let our cities grow upwards, let people have flats” because, he believes, Lahore will be unlivable in six months because of pollution.

“They have made it a ‘car city’ because of which we can’t have roadside vendors. We need sidewalks, walking tracks, cycle friendly roads, kiosks etc.”

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2022