Faisal Cantonment Board restrained from setting up bachat bazaar on service roads

The Sindh High Court restrained the Faisal Cantonment Board on Wednesday from setting up a bachat bazaar on service roads and footpaths terming it an illegal act, reports Jamal Khurshid.

The directives came on a petition filed by Mohammad Ashraf and others against the setting up of a bachat bazaar by the Faisal Cantonment Board on a service road in Block-13, Gulistan-e-Jauhar. 

The petitioners submitted that the Faisal Cantonment Board had allowed private parties to set up a bachat bazaar in the area every Thursday and Sunday causing inconvenience to thousands of residents and commuters.

They submitted that the impugned action had been taken by the cantonment board without the due process of the law and as such, it was liable to be declared illegal.

The Faisal Cantonment Board submitted that the bachat bazaar was allowed to set up in view of persistent demand by residents and the board had authority to do so under Section 200 of the Act.

An SHC division bench headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar observed that under Sections 198 and 200 of the Act, the board was only entitled to provide and maintain public markets and public slaughterhouses with shops, stall and sheds and other buildings for people engaged in trade and business and under Section 200, the board could only charge for the shops and stalls.

The court observed that reliance by the cantonment board on Sections 200 and 198 was misconceived as the site was a road, not a public market or slaughterhouse.

The court observed that the Supreme Court had already held that no billboard could be permitted to be installed on any public property under the garb of by-laws which negated civil rights at large.

The court observed that impugned action was taken by the cantonment board without fulfilling the condition specified in section 25 as no public street or other thoroughfare could be allowed by the board for any commercial and other purpose.