KARACHI: When Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah inaugurated the Sindhi Muslim Food Walk last week, he was, in the words of Advocate Irfan Aziz, actually violating a court order that restricts the closure of roads to vehicular traffic.
Advocate Aziz said the food walk has been set up by closing a main road to traffic, a move he believes goes against a February 2023 order of the Sindh High Court in a similar case involving the Burns Road Food Street.
The lawyer, who had represented the petitioners in the Burns Road food street case, says the Sindhi Muslim Food Walk runs contrary to the SHC order passed in 2023. In that case, the court has directed the local administration to end the evening food street set upon a portion of Burns Road and restore the road to vehicular traffic.
The advocate argues that the court’s directions are meant to prevent the closure of public thoroughfares in the name of ‘food streets’.
Therefore, the decision to close the road in Sindhi Muslim Cooperative Housing Society (SMCHS) for the Food Walk raises serious questions about the administration’s compliance with the court order.
‘The court had issued the order in the Burns Road case but it had generalised the principle through that order,’ he added. ‘And what was that principle? It is that any individual, group, administration or government department cannot block any thoroughfare or two-way road disallowing the public or general traffic.
Whoever does this in fact violates the court order. Even if the CM is attending such a cere-mony, which is meant to open the food street while blocking the main road or access to the road, he’s violating the court orders.
He also referred to another order of the SHC, passed on a petition he had filed a few years ago, in which the court had directed the city administration not to close roads leading from New Town to Dalmia and from Nipa to Sabzi Mandi during cricket matches on grounds of security at National Stadium.
However, Farhan Ghani, the chairman of Chanesar Town which developed the food street, ruled out any violation of court orders in this case and said a comparison of the food street on Burns Road with the Sindhi Muslim Food Walk was not justified.
‘Burns Road is a narrow lane with no arteries around to connect with it. Here, on this road, there are multiple roads and alternative links to connect the area with other parts or roads in the surroundings,’ he said while replying to Dawn’s queries.
Parking lot for visitors For residents of the SMCHS and the neighbouring blocks of the PECHS, the issue goes beyond legal points and the closure of roads.
The residents say the Food Walk has disrupted their daily lives, restricting their movement in and outofthe areaduringcertainhours and turning their residential area into a parking lot for dozens of vehi-cles brought in by valet parking operators.
The resulting congestion prevents even emergency vehicles, including ambulances, from reaching their homes, they believe.
Naveed Bashir, a long-time SMCHS resident who once served as its secretary, says he is baffled by what the government has achieved by blocking the road and designating it a Food Walk, when the area was already known as one of the city’s popular dining destinations.
‘Food outlets and eateries are operating here for decades, and people used to visit the area in large numbers even without such arrangements,’ he said.
‘So, what prompted the authori-ties to block the road connecting two major thoroughfares Sharea Faisal and Shahrah-i-Quaideen? The food street has now expanded into the adjoining residential neighbourhoods.
‘Another major issue is that, since parking is not allowed within the designated Food Walk, valet parking operators have started using the streets of our neighbourhoods SMCHS and PECHS to park visitors’ vehicles. As a result, from sunset until midnight, our streets are lined almost entirely with visitors’ cars, leaving residents virtually confined to their homes.
Naureen Rehan, a housewife and mother of three, who lives inPECHS, recounted an incident from last weekend when she was stopped from driving home after returning from her mother’s house in Gulshan-i-Iqbal late at night.
‘I was staying at my mother’s place for a couple of days and was unaware of the new arrangements,’ she said. ‘When I returned on Friday night, I found the roads leading to my home in PECHS Block 2 barricaded. I was then told that I could not drive to my own home until midnight or even the following morning as access to our neighbourhoodisroutinelyblocked after sunset because of the Food Walk. Is this meant to be a recreational facility or a nuisance for the residents?’Another resident, Amir Shamsi, appears to have become so frustrated with the situation that he is even considering moving out of the neighbourhood. He has enough reasons to consider such a decision.
‘I dread to think what will happen if any house in these neighbourhoods faces an emergency one day,’ he said. ‘Even in the event of a medical emergency, residents cannot leave their homes between evening and midnight. Even an ambulance would be unable to enter these areas during those hours.
Regarding residents’ concern, Chanesar Town Chairman Ghani agreed with their complaints.
‘For that, we are makingarrangements to introduce a system under which only residents of a particular street will be permitted to bring vehicles into and park on that street during designated hours. This system will be implemented soon,’ he told Dawn.
City Council Leader of the Opposition Advocate Saifuddin, who is the elected chairman of the union committee within whose jurisdiction the food walk has been established, also questioned the rationale behind the project and the allocation of public funds for it.
He argued that the initiative had done little beyond adding cosmetic features to an already developed area while creating considerable inconvenience for residents.