LARKANA: Scores of Larkana Municipal Corporation (LMC) tenants on Tuesday vowed to defy its eviction orders after they were issued final notice that gave them a 24-hour deadline.
The eviction is aimed at retrieving the land for the construction of a new terminal for the Peoples Bus Service (PBS), to be launched by the provincial government in the city.
An action committee formed by the agitating tenants said that the dispossession would render several hundred employees of the tenants jobless, besides depriving the affected shopkeepers of their livelihood.
According to Larkana Mayor Anwar Luhar, only 140 of around 700 tenants have been issued the eviction notice. LMC officials claimed that the 140 tenants were served first notice much earlier to allow them sufficient time as per the relevant laws. They rejected the committee’s claim that they were being dispossessed on a 24-hour notice.
People fear loss of livelihood as mayor says only 140 of around 700 tenants will have to vacate shops for Peoples Bus Service terminal
Soon after the LMC put up a banner asking the defiant shopkeepers to vacate their shops within the next 24 hours on Tuesday, scores of shopkeepers gathered at the site in a state of panic and fear. They formed an action committee, which vowed to launch a protest movement against the dispossession of so many shopkeepers.
The agitating shopkeepers held a demonstration and raised slogans against the LMC notices.
Speaking to media personnel, the committee members, Javed Hussain Mithani, Bahadur Khan Jalbani, Ali Hassan Kaheri, Niaz Hussain Khoso, Khan Mohammad Rind and others, said that the LMC had allotted them shops at the site in 2010 against substantial amounts of money. They said the tenants had been running their businesses since then and paying monthly rent regularly to the municipality.
They argued that the LMC had sufficient budget but had not been providing them basic facilities and forcing them to arrange cleaning and other services on their own. They said the tenants had been affording these expenses as well but despite this they were being evicted on a 24-hour notice.
The dispossession, they said, would cause them heavy financial losses running into millions of rupees, besides depriving them of their livelihoods.
The leaders resolved that “they will not vacate their shops under any circumstances”.
They appealed to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, his aide Jamil Soomro and Mayor Luhar not to deprive them of their livelihoods as it was a question of their survival.
The LMC administration maintains that the bus terminal site has to be handed over to the provincial government so that construction of the bus terminal could be started.
It warned that legal action could be taken against those who would not vacate their shops. Speaking to Dawn Mayor Luhar said that out of the around 700 tenants, notices were issued to only 140 occupants of the spaces doing their businesses in front of the proposed site.
Under the plan, a project with an estimated cost of Rs200m would be started to facilitate commuters and transporters, he said.
He said that the eviction was decided only after holding negotiations with the tenants and completing all legal formalities. He said: “80 per cent of the tenants agreed to comply with the LMC notice, but the rest 20 per cent are irritants”, he remarked.
“The LMC is determined to go ahead with the project,” he declared, and pledged that the affected shopkeepers would be adjusted as sufficient space was available for the purpose. “The corporation has already worked out the adjustment,” he said.
Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2026
