PESHAWAR, Nov 20: The government, in its ongoing drive to widen the Grand Trunk Road snaking through Peshawar, has wiped out all encroachments on both sides of the Gernaili road. It has bulldozed all decades-old mosques, mazars, petrol pumps and shops which restrain the drive.
The old city areas, which need an early clearance of occupation from the smugglers-turned-shopkeepers, have been encroached upon.
The busy Ashraf Road, which originates from the G.T. Road, passes through historic Chowk Yadgar and dips in Qissa Khwani bazar, has lost its identity of being a road.
Dry-fruit merchants, tea-sellers and food grain dealers have occupied footpaths on both sides of the road.
“The Town-1’s elected administration encourages them to encroach whatever they can in front of their shops,” said a policeman on the duty. “These shopkeepers constitute a vote bank for the Nazimeen and they prefer to condone all this wrongdoing,” he added.
There is no law but a lawlessness which controls the city life in this part of the district. One cannot easily pass through this area. Even school-going children and womenfolk feel a panic when they enter the congested bazaar.
Rickshaws, wheel-barrows, donkey-carts, Suzuki pick-ups, trucks and private vehicles make hours long gridlock on this road. And pedestrians find no way out if they are stuck up on the busy road.
Yousuf Ali Shah Road reflects a complete mess of things. Earlier, the former Peshawar Municipal Corporation had banned the entry of trucks during daytime. But now it has become a truck-stand. The roadside food grain dealers used to display flour bags and bankers park their vehicles on footpaths.
The residents of nearby lanes are maltreated by encroachers if they ask them to clear the footpaths. The students of Frontier Girls College, behind the Asharaf Road, have to take another long route to reach their college as they have no footpaths to pass on easily. The shopkeepers used to pay monthly (bribe) to the local police for their vandalism.
“This road doesn’t fall under the traffic police. The Hashtnagri police is responsible for the smooth traffic flow on the road, but they don’t bother,” said a small shopkeeper.
Behind the spacious G.T. Road people live in filthy conditions caused by the encroachers, police and the civic bodies. Residents say governor must visit this area and see how they are maltreated by the civic and law enforcement agencies, responsible for their well-being and protection.
“The majority of shopkeepers are settlers in the city. They hail from tribal areas. They don’t mix themselves up in the urban milieu. They try to impose their tribal culture on local people,” said a hardware dealer.
They have, he added, no respect for the law, they feel a pride when they break the law, particularly traffic law. The bankers of two branches, Khyber Bank and Allied Bank, do in the same way when they park their vehicles on footpaths, he added.
The residents have made many a request to the police and their councillors to rid them of this lawlessness, but none of them came to heed their pleas and solve their problems.