No government authority in the city is looking into the matters of "Hawkers' Zone" project, started by defunct Karachi City District Government, once the small cabins are provided to people under the project. Enjoying the absence of any authority, the cabin holders have encroached precious government land on footpaths, streets, roadsides etc.
The "Hawkers' Zone" project, which was envisaged to help the downtrodden people, has now become a source of encroachment in different areas of the city. The small cabins were largely being used for only encroaching surrounded lands on which the people have set up their business without caring about the footpath, roadsides mostly in densely populated areas of the city. Some hawkers have gone so far to construct even shops adjacent to their cabins capturing a large portion of government land.
This is not only causing fast encroachment on government land but also damaging business of the shopkeepers/markets in front of which these cabins have been installed by the city government. This also causes stoppage of traffic and immense problems to the pedestrians and commuters who have lost the footpaths and roadside lands.
Majority of the cabin holders/owners were violating the criteria and rules set for them to run small retail outlets. Though the move was aimed to minimise the haphazard mushrooming pushcarts and wooden huts and give a livelihood to the downtrodden people, but many of them were currently owned by interested groups. The cabins mostly installed around busy markets were now also being given on rents by their owners. Interestingly, when contacted the official sources at Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), no authority or department of the local government (KMC or District Administration) was currently looking into the matters of "Hawkers' Zone" project thus giving a free hand to the interested people to hold/encroach maximum government land.