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       A man walks through the debris of eateries under the Chandni Chowk bridge in Rawalpindi that were razed by the civic authorities on Monday. The other picture shows the dismantled shops set up under the Sixth Road flyover. — Photos by Mohammad Asim

       RAWALPINDI: Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) in collaboration with police demolished the new food street under Chandni Chowk and 6th Road flyovers for allegedly violating the lease agreement under which allocation of space for sports activities was mandatory.

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       The operation was started on Sunday and completed on Monday afternoon.

       The PHA and local police razed structures of 12 shops and removed their debris from the site with the help of Rawalpindi Development Authority and other civic bodies.

       Last year in December, the PHA gave the land on lease for the commercial-cum sports activities and the lessees developed New Kartarpura Food Street where they offered traditional food at Sehri and Iftar during Ramazan.

       Claims lessees violated agreement under which space for sports activities was mandatory

       After three months, the civic body realised that the lessee did not obtain approval of layout plan for shops. The structures were then razed after terminating the lease agreement.

       Wajahat Malik, a lessee of the food corner, told Dawn that they had entered into 10 years agreement with the PHA but the civic body abruptly terminated the agreement.

       He said they had spent millions of rupees to establish the food street as per the agreement but their investment went down the drain.

       “Had the authority sent us notices prior to the operation we would have shifted our goods to safer places,” he said.

       He said that nobody had stopped them when they started constructing cemented structure there.

       He said people from different walks of life including local politicians and even Punjab governor visited the street and had food during Ramazan.

       He said that they were left with no choice but to approach the courts to seek compensation for their losses, including goods and shop structures.

       The shopkeepers found it perplexing that the civic body initially allowed them to set up shops, only to later demolish them.

       He claimed that they had all the documents including approval of the construction of structure of shops. He said that he rented out the shops and the people demanded money from him for the goods and security.

       When contacted, Parks and Horticulture Authority Director General Ahmed Hassan Ranjha said structures under 6th Road and Chandni Chowk flyovers were razed due to violation of agreement.

       “We had leased out the space for sports and recreational activities. The lessee had to construct structure shops on 30pc of the area and the rest of the space was supposed to be allocated for cricket, tennis and other sports activities,” he added.

       Mr Ranjha said for shop structures, obtaining approval of the layout plan from the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation was mandatory but the shop owners started running business without it.

       He said the matter was brought to the notice of the lessees many times but they ignored the agreement, therefore the PHA had no option but to terminate the agreement.

       He said it had been decided that no further commercial activities would be allowed in the area especially under flyovers and vacant space would be used for sports activities only.

       He said the Punjab government had allocated Rs150 million for the beautification of Murree Road from Faizabad to Marrir Chowk and all the vacant space would be made neat and green.

       Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2025