ISLAMABAD, June 13: Encroachments by car showrooms and illegal automobile bazaar in commercial areas of sector G-8 and G-9 have become a major headache for the city administration and development authorities.
Busy thoroughfares are routinely clogged, causing inconvenience to motorists and residents of the area, as well as affecting trade of smaller businesses. And even though the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) and the Capital Development Authority (CDA) have conducted regular crackdowns, both have failed to eliminate the practice.
The worst-affected commercial area is the G-9 Markaz, which has gained popularity for automobile trading. “The situation in G-9 Markaz, which houses 18 showrooms, is quite bad as it affects the business of other traders,” an officer said.
On most days of the week, the showroom operators park hundreds of vehicles outside on the road, parking area, footpaths and along the roads. The visitors to the commercial areas have no space to park their vehicles or even drive through comfortably.Besides, the people who are residing in the flats at the commercial areas also suffer due to the encroachments as the entrances to their homes are blocked. “The residents’ privacy is interfered into and they face hurdles in their freemovements,” the officers admitted.
Similarly the other traders also suffer from the loss of parking space for their customers.
The situation is only slightly better in G-8 Markaz.
“The practice of using the parking area, footpath and roadside, do not bother the visitors in sector G-8, as only showrooms are operating from there,” an officer claimed.
“The visitors come over there are only to buy or examine the vehicles,” he said, adding, “only one side of the Markaz houses medical stores and the restaurant where the showrooms do not exist.”
In any case, traders, including owners of garment shops, restaurants, hair salons and banks, in the two Marakaz have lodged several complaints about the encroachments with the CDA’s enforcement wing but to no avail.
“In response to the complaints several warning were issued to showroom owners by the police and the administration but all in vain,” an officer of the administration admitted.
On the other hand, every Sunday the situation worsens as an unofficial bazaar of automobiles – called the Karachi Company – takes place.
A senior police officer said: “Owners who advertise in newspapers often do not get satisfactory responses, and so bring their vehicles here. Besides, the showrooms owners charge their commission and also do not offer the desired price to owners.”Thevehicle owners park them along the kerb all around the Markaz and in nearby streets for display. Given the small space, at least two to three parallel rows of vehicles are created on either side of the road, narrowing it and causing massive traffic jams.
Residents have lodged several complaints with the area police and capital administration, which in response imposed a ban on the illegal bazaar. Since then several individuals who violated ban have been booked under section 144 of the Pakistan Penal Code Section 144, and have had their vehicles impounded.
However, many other vehicle owners continue to throw caution to the wind and the bazaar is set up every other week. To prevent this, the city police and administration conducted meetings with showroom owners operating in G-9 Markaz and convinced them to close their businesses on Sunday, so that they could identify the vehicles brought for the illegal bazaar.
This time around the administration and police imposed a ban under Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) 133, and managed to register at least eight cases and arrested dozens of people who brought their vehicles for display and violated the ban.
In the last two months, the numbers have dwindled but the practice has not been eliminated entirely. Hence, the police have now asked the CADD to approach the CDA and arrange a space in the city for a weekly automobile bazaar in the city.
It has also asked the CADD to create space for smaller traders, who set up stalls in front of shops and footpaths in and around the markets, including Aabpara, Karachi Company, Jinnah Super, Super Market, and F-10 Markaz. Several operations were conducted to remove the encroachments by the city administration and the CDA with the help of police in which they either confiscated items put on sale and or damaged them, but the stallholders again raised their business after a few weeks.
Besides, such stallholders are also protected by the shopkeepers, who charge rent from them to use their front. The stallholders shift their items and stall inside the shop whenever the authorities come over to the markets for raid.
An officer of the city administration said: “Instead of depriving them of their livelihood, it would be better if the CDA set up a bazaar in Bhara Kahu.”