KARACHI: Just a couple of days after his Saddar restaurant was sealed by the Sindh Food Authority ‘due to poor sanitation at the eatery and substandard food being served’, the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) on Thursday demolished the second eatery of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader and MPA Khurram Sher Zaman in Bahadurabad declaring it an ‘illegal’ structure.

Mr Zaman described the SBCA move as a part of the ‘political vendetta’ by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party against the PTI.

Heavy machinery with dozens of labourers backed by the area police struck the Bahadurabad restaurant and within no time started demolition work without facing any resistance.

An SBCA official said that the structure had been under monitoring for the past several years and that Mr Zaman was summoned to clarify his position.

“When he failed to justify the commercial operation on a residential plot, he was asked to close down the restaurant. But he defied the authority’s order and insisted on continuing the illegal business. After all formalities and several notices, the SBCA finally moved today to demolish the restaurant,” he said.

Mr Zaman promptly reacted to the SBCA operation.

In a tweet, he accused the PPP government of targeting his business interests under its policy of ‘political victimisation’.

“Political victimisation [is] at its peak in the province of Sindh by Pakistan People’s Party. First, they sealed my Saddar branch through Sindh Food Authority and now demolishing other one through Sindh Building Control Authority,” he tweeted with picture and video of SBCA demolition operation.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2023