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, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
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 24News TV channel, 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.
Reporter Syed Azmat Ali Shah