KARACHI, Aug 27: Almost entire pavement of the main University Road- from Hassan Square to the Ashfaq Memorial Hospital- has been heavily encroached upon by the owners of hotels, fast-food restaurants, besides vendors , leaving no choice for pedestrians but to walk on service road amidst vehicular traffic.

Besides, the waiters of hotels and fast-food restaurants keep on moving across the service road, hindering the movement of vehicular traffic on the adjacent congested road, which had been lying in a bad shape since long.

Almost half of the service road is also in a dilapidated condition, as the nearby island often remains occupied by cars, being used as charged-parking area.

A visit to Gulshan-i-Iqbal's different blocks, including 13-A, 13-B, 13-C, 13-D, 13-D/1 and 17, shows that most of its main streets have been heavily occupied by pushcart owners and vendors, selling foodstuff, fruits and other edible items.

A large number of eating houses and barbecue shops, which have sprung up on the main University Road, occupying almost entire footpath, cook their food items there, and have placed sizzling ovens, huge frying pans and other paraphernalia right in the middle of the footpath.

It is amazing to note that the officials of the city government's Land department, who are responsible to check the menace of encroachment on footpaths and other public places, have given a free hand to the owners of the eating houses to use the footpath as well as the island dividing the service road and the main University Road, for cooking and serving food.

At the Hassan Square, a checkpoint of the Gulshan-i-Iqbal police station has been built, grabbing portions of a service road and a nearby footpath. Besides, some newspaper cabins and a number of pushcarts have encroached upon a portion of the service road and the footpath, inconveniencing the pedestrians.

Although the menace of encroachments on footpaths and roadsides in Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town has assumed such a dangerous proportion, the officials concerned of the city government and Gulshan Town administration are playing silent spectators.