FAISALABAD, Dec 30: A handpicked group having association with the Sindh-based political party — Muttahida Qaumi Movement — has allegedly grabbed the precious greenbelt inside the boundary wall of the Clock Tower Intersection, disfiguring the monument.

Information gleaned by Dawn revealed that the group was illegally running a camp for collecting donation for quake survivors. Immediately after the devastating earthquake in the NWFP and Azad Kashmir areas on Oct 8 this year, almost all the trade organizations, political parties and NGOs set up makeshift camps in various parts of the city to collect donations.

Five such camps were set up around the famous Clock Tower by the Anjuman-i-Tajiran Faisalabad, MQM (local chapter), the City District Government and two NGOs of the city. The camps of the trade body, local government and the NGOs were wound up after a month. But the MQM instead of removing the camps from outside the boundary walls established its camp office within the intersection by erecting a tin house.

The social circles and trade bodies rapped the action because the model-house disfigured the Clock Tower. In the wake of protests by the trade bodies and applications filed to the City District Government, an anti-encroachment team of the Lyallpur Town Administration orally asked the MQM activists to wind up their camp or set up one outside the Clock Tower.

After the refusal of the MQM members, the town council’s team forcibly took the model-house and other belongings into custody. But in a surprise move, the local administrative officials and the police functionaries withdrew when the top brass of the Sindh government intervened and the model-house was again erected in the lush green lawns of the Clock Tower.

Shocked by the move, the general public and traders of eight bazaars have taken exception to the local administration for failing to stop the MQM from illegally running the camp.

They say the city traders have donated Rs5 billion to the quake funds without setting up a camp. Similarly, the mainstream political parties like the PPP and the PML have contributed a lot but the MQM activists have collected a few hundreds of thousands of rupees, they argue.