Provincial Minister for Law and Justice and Local Government Muhammad Basharat Raja has said Rawalpindi would get lion's share in the next fiscal year budget for development plans. "During the current fiscal year, Chief Minister Punjab Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi has provided Rs eight billion in current year and many mega development projects have been completed during this year", Raja Basharat said while addressing the centennial ceremony of historical and oldest Moti Bazar of Rawalpindi. Moti Bazar is one of the oldest shopping centers of the twin cities.
It has more than one thousand shops having a long range of variety in clothes, ready made garments, crockery and cutlery, pottery, hosiery, bangles, wedding dresses, footwear, leather garments, and miscellaneous items besides a good taste of fast foods. Moti Bazar is celebrating its centennial ceremony and in this regard celebrations were underway, besides holding special sales and discount on commodities.
The provincial minister, while praising the efforts of the Central Traders Association Rawalpindi for celebrating the centennial of the historical Moti Bazar said that in that era of material interests, people who love and remember their history were really great.
"We have almost forgotten our history and historical heritage, which would result in ignorance of coming generations", he added.
He said a historical library would very soon be constructed at Bagh-e-Sardaran where all books related to history would be made available.
The building would be renovated before June and a park would also be established in it to provide better recreational facility to people.
He said the construction of multi-story plaza in place of old Municipal buildings would start from June and affected of Committee Chowk underpass would be given shops on first two floors while remaining would be parking.
He said the parking was a core issue of Rawalpindi and traders should come forward to resolve that issue once for all.
He said government would take all possible measures to protect the historical heritage of Rawalpindi and all old buildings would be protected and converted into libraries and other useful places.
Minister said that race of construction of huge plazas has created dangerous trend in the city. "We have started abolishing historical buildings and constructed plazas.
This trend should come to an end now and there should be a check and balance in this process", he added.
Minister directed the civic bodies to take stock of the race of plaza construction and make sure that building by laws should not be violated.