RAHIM YAR KHAN: At least five persons were injured allegedly when the thatched roof of an illegal shed’s roof collapsed during a joint anti-encroachment operation conducted by the Punjab Enforcement and Regulatory Authority (Pera) and the Municipal Committee (MC) teams here on Tuesday.

The operation was being conducted to remove encroachments along the eastern bank of Nowshera Minior Canal adjacent to Umar Block of Abbasia Town.

According to the shopkeepers, the operation was conducted without issuing any notices to them.

Yaseen, an affected shopkeeper, told Dawn that on Tuesday around 11am teams of Pera and MC staffers arrived there and told them to vacate the 20 foot land in front of the shops, where illegal sheds were built, till the evening.

The injured ‘denied treatment, MLCs’ by SZMCH doctors

Meanwhile, Pera staff also fined Rs5,000 to 6,000 to some shopkeepers and left the scene, he said.

However, he said that after only two hours, the Pera and MC staff returned there along with heavy machinery and started demolishing the temporary structures built in front of the shops.

Yaseen alleged that although many shopkeepers were removing the sheds voluntarily, Pera and MC employees started demolishing the structures.

As they demolished the roof of a shed, where some persons were still present, the structure collapsed, leaving five persons, including Gulfam (18), Ali (20), Qammar Sultan (21) and two others, including a carpenter, injured.

They were immediately shifted to the emergency ward of the Sheikh Zayed Medical College Hospital (SZMCH).

Yaseen also alleged that due to the pressure of Pera officials, doctors at the emergency ward refused to admit the injured persons.

He said that later some lawyers reached the hospital and demanded medico-legal certificates (MLCs) of the injured persons from the doctors, who refused to issue the same.

The injured, he said, were then taken to a private health facility for treatment.

Another shopkeeper, seeking anonymity, said Pera staff demanded bribe from them for sparing their shops during the operation.

SZMCH spokesperson and Deputy Medical Superintendent (DMS) Rana Ilyas Ahmed told Dawn that some lawyers filed an application on Tuesday night against the RYK deputy commissioner (DC), holding the officer responsible for the roof collapse incident.

He claimed that as the lawyers were trying to wrongly implicate the DC, their application for the MCL was not entertained.

However, later in the night a board was constituted which conducted the examination of theinjured persons for issuance of the MLCs, and its report would be finalised in a couple ofdays, Mr Ahmed said.

When this correspondent tried to contact Pera office for its stance on the landline number, the phone operator said the sub divisional officer was in a meeting at the DC Office, and even refused to share his mobile phone number.

MC administrator Additional Deputy Commissioner General Irfan Anwar did not respond to the calls made on his phone for his version.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2026