RAWALPINDI: The 50-year-old book bazaar in Saddar, which is set up every Sunday on Bank Road, could not be held after the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) stopped the booksellers from establishing their stalls on the pavements.

The RCB said the bazaar was shut down for a day because of the ongoing construction work on Bank Road, but the shopkeepers feared that the cantonment officials permanently planned to shut down their weekly business because the authorities plan to declare the road a pedestrian zone.

The roadside bazaar offers secondhand books on relatively cheaper rates and is thronged by people from across the city. It offers textbooks, literature, magazines, and children’s books among other genres.

The RCB charges Rs300 per stall for a day from the vendors who set up their counters outside the shops, which are closed on Sunday.

Cantt authorities bar stallholders from setting up weekly book bazaar to meet work deadline

Every Sunday, the traders in Saddar observe their weekly vacation, making space for the bookstalls to be installed in front of the usually bustling shopping plazas. As they arrived to set up their makeshift book shops, the stall owners were stopped by the cantonment officials, apparently due to a visit by the high-level authorities to inspect the construction work.

When contacted, RCB Additional Chief Executive Officer Shuja Haider told Dawn that the bazaar was not closed permanently. “We have allowed the stall holders to sell books and charged a fee from them for the past many years...,” he said.

“As the construction work is going on Bank Road, we have to meet the deadline to complete the construction work. The stallholders of the book bazaar had been asked to not set up their stalls for a day,” he said.

However, the visitors to the bazaar expressed resentment over this action and said that people were able to purchase books from this area at cheaper rates and this bazaar was a special feature of Saddar on Sundays.

“I come to Saddar every Sunday, but it is shocking to see there is no bookstall here. I have found only a stall in front of the Bata Shoes shop on Kashmir Road. The stallholder informed me that the RCB had stopped the bazaar for a day on Bank Road,” said Muhammad Hassan, one of the visitors.

Syed Ali, a retired officer, said that he visited Bank Road on Sunday afternoon but was disappointed to find out about the bazaar. “For my generation, reading books is a favourite pastime... Slow speed of the internet nowadays has also forced people to revert to books,” he said, underscoring the importance of the roadside book bazaar.

He said that the secondhand books at cheaper rates are available at these stalls that’s why he visited these stalls every Sunday.

“For students, it is a blessing to have such a bazaar and the government should ensure the establishment of this bazaar on a weekly basis,” said Imran Ali, a university student who was searching for book stalls in Saddar on Sunday.

He said students would get their textbooks from these stalls at cheaper rates and children would be able to buy storybooks from these stalls.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2024