Business is thriving in Dalgiran Bazaar, one of the busiest of the eight markets in the heart of Rawalpindi. Abdul Hamid, who is a wholesale dealer here, finds his own business thriving as well.
Yet Hamid and other traders in this market are angry because the supposedly ‘business-friendly government’ of Punjab has failed to respond to their demand for a new wholesale market accessible for buyers, sellers as well as vehicles transporting goods.
Hamid, now an old man, has seen this bazaar grow from an orderly market in 1958 to its present chaotic conditions.
“While the number of shops in the bazaar has not increased since 1901 when the bazaar was established, the scale of business has grown manifold,” he says.
Say the present location has limited space and access for trucks
He fondly recalls the era of Ayub Khan. “Things were more organised,” he said.
There are between 100 to 1,200 medium to large shops in each of these main wholesale markets, which sell all kinds of agricultural and horticultural products. Each market has its own association, functioning under an umbrella supreme working council.
Office-bearers of these associations allege that each new government in the province makes false promises to remedy their problems.
Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif too allocated land for a wholesale market but action has been so slow that traders have lost hope.
“If the Punjab government fails to honour its promise, we will not vote for the PML-N in the next general elections,” said Kamran Saeed, general secretary of the supreme working council.
“We are a large vote bank and could field our own candidate who would get our problems solved,” he added.
According to Mian Anjum Nazir, vice chairman of the council, the wholesale business has to close at sunset because stocks finish. Trucks bringing in fresh stock are only allowed to enter the market after 11pm. “We need trucks to be able to bring in goods at any time of the day,” he said.
A large number of trucks attempt to enter the wholesale market area during the few hours in which they are allowed to enter the city, resulting in traffic jams along the entire route.
Shaikh Mohammad Naeem, General Secretary of Dalgiran Bazaar Association, complained that requests sent to the Punjab chief minister and district coordination officer Rawalpindi to ask them to take measures to ameliorate conditions have gone unanswered.
While Shahid Ghafoor Paracha, President of the Anjuman-i-Tajiran, Raja Bazaar said that shifting the wholesale market to another area will allow roads to be cleared of encroachments and traffic flow to be improved. A new wholesale market for Rawalpindi will create jobs and generate revenue for the government and not impact the Islamabad wholesale market in I-10, he said.
About 1,000 kanals are being acquired by the Punjab government for a new wholesale market near Rawat town, 26 kilometres south of Rawalpindi.
Originally, a ‘Quaid City’ was to be built on the land located between Kalyam Mughal and Tope Kalyal villages but it was not developed.
The government again sold land to five private developers and investment companies but nothing cropped up on the land except rain-fed crops.
Secretary Rawalpindi Market Committee Azhar Hussain said 60 per cent of plots in the new market will be allotted to the wholesale business community of Rawalpindi city and the remaining will be open for bidding. The Punjab government has allocated Rs332.6 million for the resettlement project of the wholesale market, he said.
The Asian Development Bank has agreed to provide technical and financial assistance for the project at the request of the Punjab government and fielded a resettlement specialist to prepare a land acquisition and resettlement plan in accordance with Pakistan Land Acquisition Act of 1894.
Azhar Hussain said the Punjab Provincial Fund Board will be releasing funds for payment to the displaced families. The land on which the planned market will be built is home to some families who are tenant farmers, he said.
According to the official the new market will have separate halls for farmers, growers, brokers, workers and transporters, parking area, bank branches, mosque and a small hospital.
Farmers from the entire Potohar region will be able to supply to the wholesale market. Trucks bringing supplies to the new market from the rest of the country would enter the market from the new road being built between Mandra and Chakwal, he said.
Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2014
