LAHORE: Presidents and leaders of all leading retail and wholesale markets have called for a coordinated and strong mechanism to put pressure on the government for removing encroachments and setting up parking plazas in these markets, especially in the Walled City.
The traders said they had time and again lodged complaints with the city district administration regarding missing civic facilities at these markets but the authorities concerned turned a deaf ear to their problems. They said they had also requested Punjab IGP Inam Ghani to take notice of alleged harassment/manhandling of goods transporters at police checkpoint, but in vain.
The traders were expressing their concerns during a consultative session organised by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Tuesday. The traders were gathered under the aegis of All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajran (APAT) led by its chairman Waqar Ahmed Mian to jointly form a coordinated mechanism to put pressure on the government for resolving their long-standing issues.
While seeking help of the LCCI in resolving their issues, especially removal of encroachments and construction of parking plazas, the traders informed LCCI President Mian Tariq Misbah, Senior Vice President Muhammad Nasir Hameed Khan and Vice President Tahir Manzoor Chaudhry said they were doing businesses in miserable conditions and the situation was getting worst day-by-day.
The traders said that lack of infrastructure, deteriorating law and order situation, traffic mess and bad sewerage system, and out-of-order street lights have made it hard for them to do business in the markets. They deplored that a number of fire incidents have also taken place in the market due to worst transmission lines but the LESCO officials were not entertaining their complaints. They demanded that the concerned SDOs of the LESCO should visit markets at least once a month.
They said that some sites for parking plazas were available at different markets but the government had not started any despite so many years. Due to parking and traffic issues, the customers were avoiding visiting markets and the volume of business had significantly been reduced, they claimed.
LCCI Chief Mian Tariq Misbah said that nearly two decades had been passed but the government had yet to resolve the parking issues in the retail and wholesale markets.
He assured the participants that the LCCI would take up that issue with the government and hoped that a positive outcome would emerge. He expressed that no smart-lockdown on Eidul Adha should be imposed on traders as they had already suffered huge financial loss and could not afford another lockdown.
During the session, some of the traders also expressed their annoyance with the LCCI members claiming that the chamber doesn't give "due attention" to small traders and only serves to the large-scale businessmen. They said they gathered at the LCCI because they expected that the chamber would raise their issues with the authorities concerned which were not listening. Some participants while condemning the proposed arrests powers of the Federal Board Revenue (FBR) officials to take into custody tax defaulters requested the LCCI chief to take up this matter and convince the government to withdraw this decision.
APAT President Malik Amanat Ali, General Secretary Malik Kalim Ahmad, former LCCI Senior Vice President Khawaja Khawar Rashid, former Vice President Zeshan Khalil, EC Members Imran Bashir and Maqbool Siddiqui and market leaders including Nasir Ansari, Haris Attique, Babar Ali Khan, Malik Hafeez also spoke on the occasion.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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