PESHAWAR: Taking a U-turn, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)
government on Thursday declared Peshawar’s ‘Bachat Bazaar’, inaugurated by
none other than former chief minister of the province and incumbent defence
minister Pervez Khattak, illegal and ordered the demolition of the shops
built at its premises.
The pushcart vendors of Hashtnagri flyover had been allotted shops by the
last Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government in the bazaar in 2017 on
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s orders who was then the party chairman.
Talking to media, one of the shopkeepers said it was PTI’s last chief
minister who had handed the allotment letters to him and many others like
him and performed its inauguration. “And now we have been issued the notices
to wind it up and leave,” he regretted.
Although the shopkeepers have met with the deputy commissioner (DC) Peshawar
and implored him to take back the decision, the latter has flatly refused.
The vendors, on the other hand, threatened the district administration with
protests and even committing mass suicides in case it went ahead with its
plan. -Agencies
