Last week, I happened to visit the famous Clock Tower bazaar, Faisalabad. It goes without saying that the place is worth its weight in gold. The way the eighth bazaar are inter-twined and linked together with the Clock Tower right in the centre is just marvellous. Though the Clock Tower roundabout itself is a feast to the eyes, the roads which lead to different markets tell a sorry state of affairs. For example, the half of the road leading to the Rail Bazaar was encroached by motorcycles and on rest of the road cars were parked while the sidewalk was occupied by vendors which made it an uphill task for the pedestrians to walk to the cloth market.
Now, Faisalabad is home to a thriving textile industry and the cloths prepared here are exported world over. There is no denying the fact that the textile industry is one of the leading contributors to the economic growth of the country. Moreover, the cloth merchants from across the country also head towards Faisalabad to purchase cloths for business purposes. With congested traffic and blocked roads, they face a lot of problems to carry and transport their shopping to the bus-stop. In order to mitigate the suffering of traders and the tourists, it is obligatory for the authorities concerned to allocate a separate parking space for the vehicles and the motorcycles. In the same way, the vendors doing their businesses on the footpath should be relocated to some other places. One hopes that the people at the helms will look into the matter and took concrete measures to maintain the beauty of the Clock Tower bazaar.
MUHAMMAD FAYYAZ,
Mianwali, March 10.