Traders reject Lahore heritage revival project

LAHORE:The traders of Circular Road and adjacent business areas where many old markets of the City are located have rejected the Punjab government’s Lahore Authority of Heritage Revival Project claiming that the project would affect Rs5 trillion business of the 23 markets located in the area.

The traders’ community representatives of different markets in a press conference here Wednesday at Lahore Pres Club claimed that the Punjab government without consulting and taking the traders on board has decided to demolish 7,000 shops located in the area under the Lahore Authority of Heritage Revival Project.

The Punjab government, recently established the Lahore Authority for Heritage Revival to rehabilitate and preserve all heritage sites in the City while the former PM and PMLN President Nawaz Sharif is the Patron-in-Chief of the project. The project is also in the electoral constituency of the three times PM Nawaz Sharif and his nephew, former CM Hamza Shehbaz while the PMLN never lost the seat from here any time in the recent past.

President of Circular Road Markets Board Adil Munir, Patron-in-Chief Syed Azmat Ali Shah, Chairman Khawaja Imran said that they were doing business here from the generations while the government without considering the loss to the business and bread and butter of the commoner has launched the project.

‘The government kept us in dark while announcing the project and traders came to know about it through the TV channels’, they said, adding the government has planned to spend Rs577 billion on it’.

They said that the Circular Road Markets Board and Shah Alam Markets Board are on board against the project. They said the heritage revival is very good to promote the business and culture of the city. However, the government has planned to destroy our business as the AC City is issuing notices to the business to make their arrangements within three months as after three months, they will throw us out from the businesses which were started by our ancestors even before the creation of Pakistan.

‘We are voters of the PMLN and Nawaz Sharif lovers while the bureaucracy decided to end the bread and butter of over 70,000 families through this plan’, they said, adding the Circular Road businesses are the supply chain of the entire Pakistan and closing the wholesale businesses of the areas and markets means to disrupt the entire supply chain of the trading across Pakistan.

They said that there is no encroachments and illegal occupation here on Circular Road markets. Rather, they are tenants on government land who have been doing business for generations.

They said that the on the one hand, the Punjab government promoting business by giving interest-free loans while on the other hand, destroying existing established businesses. They said that no one has taken them into confidence while neither has there been any talk of an alternative place nor has the plan been shared with stakeholders. They demanded the government make a Commission on the plan and give full representation to the traders and get their suggestions. Otherwise, the traders would take to streets.

They said that the elected representatives of the area are not voicing for them. They requested the Nawaz Sharif and Hamza Shehbaz to listen their voters and supporters’ genuine grievances and address them before these voters get angry.

On the occasion, President Anjuman-e-Tajiran Mujahid Maqsood Butt, expressed solidarity with the traders of Circular Road and announced full support to them. He said that the Circular Road is not separate from the Lahore traders. He said that it is the Circular Road's turn today while Neela Gumbad Market is also included in this plan. The turn of the other markets will also come tomorrow. ‘We should not remain silent’, he said. He said after Circular Road, the government has a plan to shift commercial activities out of Lahore. However, we will fight a peaceful battle with the rulers. All the traders will unite and fight for their rights.

He appealed to the government to hold talks with Circular Road Board and address the grievances. ‘We will not allow bureaucracy to decide the fate of the Lahore businesses in closed rooms”, he said adding that the government has come with the slogan of respect for votes, so now respect the voters. He suggested the leadership of Circular Road Markets Board to protest peacefully while the all the traders of Lahore including the Anjuman-e- Tajiran are standing with them. Later, the shopkeepers of Circular Road Markets protested and blocked the roads outside the Lahore Press Club to strongly register their protest against the Lahore Authority of Heritage Revival project.