Residents of Wandala Road, Shahdara, on Sunday requested Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to take notice of encroachments on the main bazaar.
They said shopkeepers and motorists passing through the market quarrelled several times a day and there was a high risk of accidents.
Saleem Raza, Ashar Bhatti, Nadeem Mughal, Sheikh Afzal, Rana Kaleem, Mian Khurrum and Haji Naeem said they had sent several applications to the authorities, but no action against encroachers had been taken.
They said influential people had forced the shopkeepers to rent out their front portions. This had caused the bazaar to become congested and created problems for residents.
They said the road had become even narrower because several new stalls had been set up as part of Ramazan and Sunday bazaars.
They said that even ambulances could not pass through the bazaar. “School vans cannot pick and drop children on time. They sometimes get stuck there for hours,” they said.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2013.