Car dealers use ‘cheap’ tactics to avoid action

Islamabad: With the administration carrying out crackdown against illegal occupation of public places by showrooms, their owners have now started parking their cars outside public parks to avoid any action.

According to the eyewitnesses, when the team of local administration moves towards the areas where public places have been occupied by the showrooms, their owners immediately move their cars to parking lots of nearby parks and markets on temporary basis. When the teams return back the owners also bring back their cars outside their showrooms. This practice is continuously being witnessed by the people who often visit main market of the G-8 Markaz.

Shahid Saleem, a resident of sector G-8, said "When I visited G-8 Markaz to buy some food items I saw showroom owners fast moving their cars to other places. After some time a team of local administration arrived there to vacate public places illegal occupied the showroom owners."

"When the team returned back the showroom owners immediately brought back their cars to same spots. This situation needs some concrete plan to curb this practice," he said. Jamshed Iqbal, another resident, said "When the local administration started crackdown against illegal showrooms then they shifted their cars to a public park in Jilania Market. So the crackdown on car showrooms ended up all the vehicles parked at Children's Park.”

He said "The relevant authorities have so far carried out number of crackdowns against these showrooms but every time their owners avoided any strict action and continued to occupy public places to park their vehicles."

When contacted, an official said "Now we are moving ahead with a planned approach and all public places will be cleared of illegal occupation. The showroom owners are almost cooperating with us and, hopefully, they will manage their businesses without violating laws of the land.”