KARACHI, June 11: The Pakistan People’s Party taking serious notice of a deteriorating law and order situation in Lyari Town held the provincial government responsible for it. Addressing a meeting of divisional and district office-bearers on Monday, Sindh PPP President Syed Qaim Ali Shah said Lyari had been in the grip of lawlessness for the past few years, but the government had totally failed to control the criminal activities.
“It is the prime responsibility of the government to protect the life and property of the people,” he said and condemned the government for its failure to perform its basic duty. The PPP leader also criticised the role of the provincial government over the May 12 bloody incidents and called for its removal.
The meeting decided to hold a public meeting on June 16 on the third death anniversary of PPP leader Munawwar Hussain Sohrawardy, who was assassinated in 2004. The meeting will be held at Mir Usman Parda Park near Jail Chowrangi.
Expressing their concern over frequent load-shedding, the PPP leaders said it had made the life of citizens miserable and condemned the government’s apathy in this respect.
Meanwhile, the party announced that a public meeting would be held on June 21 on the birthday of PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto. The celebrations will be held at Maulana Mohammad Jauhar Park (Kakri Ground).
In a separate statement, PPP leader Nisar Ahmad Khuhro, who is also the leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, expressed concern over load-shedding and condemned the city government for playing a role of a silent spectator.
He said the citizens were compelled to buy generators and UPS while the government was bent upon increasing petroleum prices forcing people to pay more for daily commodities.
The PPP leader urged the government to expose those taking advantage of the situation while ignoring the hardships being faced by the people.
Illegal structures: Encroachment is one of the major problems being faced by the people in old city areas and it appears as if the operation clean-up launched in the past has not affected the overall situation and the encroachers are doing their business as usual.
A survey of Lyari and Saddar towns shows that the market areas are the worst-hit as encroachers have occupied every inch of commercial land.
Area residents said that the illegal occupation of land would not be possible without the support of high-ups.
They said several drives had been launched against encroachments in the past few years but the town authorities faced a lot of difficulties in consolidating whatever success they had achieved as they failed to get the desired response from certain government agencies.
Right from Tibet Centre up to Boulton Market, footpaths are in the possession of encroachers restricting free movement of pedestrians and creating obstructions in the smooth flow of traffic. Almost similar is the situation in Empress Market and other commercial centres of the Saddar Town.
In Lyari, the encroachers have not only occupied the main market and public places such as Lea Market and Aat Chowk, but also the footpaths near school buildings and hospitals.
The situation is not different in Kharadar-Mithadar and busy Ranchore Lane and Nanakwara where every inch of the market and commercial spots have been occupied.
“Virtually all open spaces near public buildings are being controlled by either transport mafia or extortionists who take money from vendors and hawkers and allow them to continue their business,” human rights activists said.