MCR staff defies court order, razes shops at Banni Chowk

RAWALPINDI: The Municipal Corporation Rawalpindi (MCR) conducted an illegal anti-encroachment operation at Banni Chowk on Saturday and razed parts of legally-built shops despite the court’s stay order.

On Sunday, shopkeepers of Banni Chowk lodged protest against Saturday’s illegal anti-encroachment operation and said that they had told the MCR staff that their representative was bringing the court’s stay order copy, but they did not pay any attention towards this and demolished parts of all these shops immediately by trespassing on parts of their shops.

Civil Judge 1st Class Rawalpindi Malik Abdul Sattar Kallu granted stay order to Banni Chowk shopkeepers on Saturday, restraining the MCR staff from demolishing any part of concerned premises. But the MCR staff defied the court order despite the fact that the case was sub judice. The MCR officials insisted that they were given order from high ups to raze the shops immediately because the judge had evacuated the stay order on Friday.

Earlier on Friday evening, the MCR staff came to demolish shops without notice or any court order. Shopkeepers protested and asked them to show any order on paper, but the MCR staff failed to produce any paper, and rather said they were given verbal order from high ups to raze their shops forthwith. With the interference of officials of Banni Police Station, they suspended the operation and threatened that they would come back on Saturday and raze their shops. They did it without producing any court order or any other document. They did not give any importance to the court documents.

The shopkeepers have filed a case against the MCR in civil court and the MCR is to file reply today (Monday). But before it, they were teasing those shopkeepers and even on Sunday their staff visited Banni Chowk to see whether shopkeepers were again fixing the razed shutter gates at their shops or using the razed parts of the shops.