Traders linked vacating 936 shops in the Lea Market area with fresh government survey as the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation's anti-encroachment drive entered its 36th day on Monday.
A delegation from Lea Market Shopkeepers Association called on Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar and told him the traders were ready to vacate their shops voluntarily but they called for a fresh survey of Lea Market prior to anti-encroachment action there. They said abrupt demolition of shops without conducting fresh survey of the market would amount to gross injustice to the genuine traders and tenants, and would create sense of deprivation among them.
The Mayor accepted their demand and constituted a committee comprising KMC's Anti-Encroachment and Estate Department officials and two representatives from the Market traders and tasked them to conduct fresh survey and submit the report by Tuesday (today)
Separate delegations of the market traders headed by All Karachi Tajir Ittehad (AKTI) chairman Atique Mir and former federal minister Haji Haneef Tayyab called on the Mayor and requested him to ensure alternate shops for the traders affected from the ongoing anti-encroachment drive.
They said the hundreds of traders have been waiting for alternate space to resume their businesses for the last one month. They lamented that the government has given nothing but empty promises to the affected people. They said their families are extremely distressed due to financial woes engendered due to loss of shops/businesses in the wake of anti-encroachment campaign. Officials said there are some 936 registered shops within the eight sub-markets around the Lea Market vicinity, however, the traders have illegally extended structures and shades from their original size to squat the area.