LAHORE:
Like the previous years, this year also, the Punjab government has announced an operation against the invasions, however, taking into account the immutable nature of the problem, it seems unlikely that repression brings any lasting improvement in the problem of invasion.
According to the documents obtained by the Express PAkGazette, the operations against the illegal invasions are underway in 41 districts of 10 divisions of the province, with the largest number of operations carried out in the Division of Lahore. A total of 55,361 operations in LaHore and three other districts were carried out, where more than 3,000 stores were sealed, fines were imposed worth more than RS4 billion while 500 cases were recorded. Then, more than 5,000 permanent ones, and more than three million temporal invasions were eliminated.
Although the invasions have been affecting the law and the order in the province during the last twenty years, the fact that the Government does not take energetic measures against officials who take bribes of the invaders have allowed the practice of the liquidants to persist.
Ahmed Ahmed, a Patwari, confirmed that there were many stores and houses that only appeared on paper. “In this sense, the new government rewards their servants or increases the amount of income and security by giving eviction notices,” said Ahmed.
Muhammad Hussain, who runs a restaurant in Lahore, confirmed that the government had allowed several generations of their family to manage their business in government by taking bribes. “This process has been happening during the last 25 years. Municipality staff clears the matter by taking money. This trend is not over,” said Hussain.
“The incoming governments take the records of the servants of the ancient governments and give them to the people of their party. This process generates income while allowing the new money to flow towards the treasure in the form of security,” said the former local Government of DG Masood Mahmood Tamana.
The city’s urban planner, Mian Sohail Hanif, believed that the Urban Planning Department was to blame for the invasions in the province. “For income, they first impose taxes in the markets under the pretext of marketing and do not legalize them. Merchants and contractors pay compensation to the municipality and the corporation by monthly and annual. Unless municipalities and corporations are formally the markets as commercial and non -commercial with effective planning together with legal taxes, income will continue to be established by operations, what it declares on the operation.
On the other hand, Tanveer Ahmed Khan, a former director of the Corporation, said the fact that the political nature of the invasions led to his establishment and eventual elimination, highlighting the need for better urban legislation and planning.
Speaking to The Express PAkGazette, Punjab Minister of Information, Uzma Bukhari, indicated that Prime Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif promised to carry out the anti-separration operation fairly and planned to rehabilitate unemployed persons affected by these actions.
“The government does not want to create unemployment. Cleaning invasions and addressing the resulting challenges they face in the markets is crucial to guarantee the soft traffic flow,” Bukhari said.
