KMC demolishes illegal encroachments in Karachi's old city areas

KARACHI: An anti-encroachment team of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), demolished several encroachments in the business district of the city, ARY News reported on Saturday.

The Anti-Encroachment Cell of the city authority in night raids in wholesale market of Jodia Bazaar, Plastic Market, Boulton Market, Khoya Gali and Kaghzi Bazaar removed encroachments in front of godowns and shops, officials said.

The municipal staff confiscated over 200 pushcarts and make-shift shops in its anti-encroachment drive in the old city area’s business district.

The shades and walls illegally built and extended by the shopkeepers and godown owners in front of their businesses, were demolished in the operation.

A man who tried to resist the removal of encroachments was handed over to the police deployed during the operation.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan had ordered removal of the illegal structures and encroachments emerged and mushroomed in Karachi to reclaim the public space, the largest city and economic engine of Pakistan.

A bench of the apex court in March 2019 issued order for continuation to the anti-encroachment drive.

“Restaurants and small businesses have sprung up on small plots. There is no place to walk in the streets,” the bench had observed in its hearing of the case in Karachi Registry.

The chief secretary Sindh was appointed by the court to oversee the operations after directing a continuance of the anti-encroachment operation in the city.

The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation had recently announced carrying out five major anti-encroachment operations at Plastic Market near M.A. Jinnah Road in the old city, near Clifton and other areas of the city.