Staff Reporter
The traders in Lea Market have been told their shops will be razed when the Pakistan Super League ends.
“We will begin the operation as soon as the PSL is over, since all the law-enforcement forces are deployed to maintain [its] security,” explained a director at KMC’s Anti-Encroachment cell, Bashir Siddiqui. The city is following court orders from 2018 to demolish illegal shops. The Karachi Metropolitan Cooperation had told the shops to pack up last week as it says they are encroaching on a historic site. The old market is made up of three buildings and a clock tower dating to 1927. Lea Market was originally constructed for bazaars but as the population grew, shops and pushcarts started cropping up and began to conceal the declared heritage site. KMC spray-painted 702 shops and stalls with a red cross on Monday.
