RAWALPINDI: Traders from the cantonment areas will stage protests in Saddar from Nov 13 against the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board’s (RCB) plan to make Bank Road a pedestrian street.

Addressing a press conference, Cantonment Traders Association President Sheikh Hafeez, General Secretary Zafar Qadri, Mirza Mir Baig and Mushtaq Khan said the RCB had launched a plan to make Bank Road a pedestrian street, which would destroy their businesses.

They said the traders would bring out rally from Saddar to RCB offices on Nov 13 and would register their protest. “Customers have disappeared due to blocking of this road and our shopkeepers are sitting without any business,” Sheikh Hafeez said.

Zafar Qadri said top officials of the cantonment created hurdles in creating a conducive environment for businesses.

“Businessmen have been facing difficulties. We pay all taxes and rents but in return we get nothing,” he said, adding that the RCB officials had made plans while sitting in comfortable offices and had no time to consult people and traders while devising new policies.

He said shopkeepers had not been doing any business for the last few weeks and on top of this they had to pay salaries to their workers as well as electricity bills.

Cantonment Traders Association President Sheikh Hafeez said that to beautify the bazaar, the RCB started the project to shift electricity cables underground on Bank Road, Kashmir Road, Adamjee Road and Saddar Road with funds from the Punjab government, after which signboards on the shops of Bank Road were changed.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2024