**Illegal Roadside Markets Worsen Traffic Congestion in Rawalpindi Amid Allegations of Official Complicity**<\/p>\n
Rawalpindi is facing severe traffic congestion, particularly on the busy Rawal Road, largely due to the proliferation of illegal roadside markets. Local residents report increasing difficulties in daily commutes as unauthorized vendors continue to operate with apparent impunity, raising concerns about the effectiveness and integrity of municipal enforcement.<\/p>\n
Vendors set up makeshift stalls along Rawal Road on a daily basis, significantly hindering pedestrian movement and creating severe bottlenecks for traffic. While the issue is longstanding, with roadside markets having become a routine feature, citizens allege that municipal intervention has been superficial at best. According to sources, municipal staff conduct occasional operations\u2014often only once a month\u2014primarily issuing a handful of fines in a procedural manner rather than taking substantive action.<\/p>\n
Insiders claim that many of these carts are operated with the tacit approval, and sometimes direct involvement, of municipal employees. Vendors are reportedly tipped off ahead of scheduled enforcement actions, allowing them to temporarily disappear into side streets. Subsequently, the official record shows action was taken, while business resumes as usual the following day.<\/p>\n
Despite repeated complaints to the Municipal Officer of Revenue (MOR), residents say enforcement operations remain largely cosmetic. In official statements, authorities, including Inspector In-charge Maqsood, assert that field staff are active daily and actions are routinely taken against illegal encroachments. However, the persistence of the markets raises questions about the efficacy and sincerity of these efforts.<\/p>\n
When approached for comment, senior official Masood deflected questions to the department’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), a position that has reportedly remained vacant for the past ten months. This lack of accountability further frustrates residents.<\/p>\n
On one occasion, an operation was conducted following a complaint on July 26, during which Additional CEO Ali Imran declared Rawal Road cleared of illegal markets. Residents, however, report that the vendors returned by the next morning, and official action resulted in only a few fines and the confiscation of one or two carts, despite there being over 70 vendors operating in the area.<\/p>\n
Local residents are now making a strong appeal to the Chief Minister of Punjab and the Deputy Commissioner of Rawalpindi to take notice of the ongoing issue, dismantle the illegal markets, and hold those responsible, including complicit officials, accountable under the law to set a deterrent example for others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
**Illegal Roadside Markets Worsen Traffic Congestion in Rawalpindi Amid Allegations of Official Complicity** Rawalpindi is facing severe traffic congestion, particularly on the busy Rawal Road, largely due to the proliferation of illegal roadside markets. Local residents report increasing difficulties in daily commutes as unauthorized vendors continue to operate with apparent impunity, raising concerns about the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6912,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6910\/revisions\/6912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}