‘Over 900 shops razed in Karachi’s Saddar’, says senior KMC official

KARACHI: Director Anti-Encroachment Cell of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, Bashar Siddiqui, has said that more than 900 shops have been razed in Saddar during the ongoing drive against encroachments, ARY News reported.

Speaking to media here, he said there were parks around 50 years ago outside Empress Market where shops had been built. ‘We are now going to restore the place in its original shape,’ he added.

He informed that parks would be constructed at all the places in Saddar where shops were demolished.

He said encroachments inside the Empress Market would also be removed. “We will also constitute a task force to prevent encroachments from springing up again in future.”

Earlier speaking to media, Mayor Karachi Wasim Akhtar said the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation would build parks at places where illegally-built shops have been demolished during an anti-encroachment drive.

Akhtar said the prime minister must have been happy with the drive against encroachments. “The PM himself asked me to get all those encroachments removed,” said Mayor Karachi.

He told that media that the operation against encroachments began at 7am today and it had been winded up successfully.

The Supreme Court on Oct 27 ordered that the illegal encroachments in the metropolis be removed within the next 15 days.