PHA leaves cars, valuables at mercy of thieves

* Visitor says his credit card, Rs 7,000 were stolen from car parked in Race Course Park
* PHA DG confirms complaints

By Afnan Khan

LAHORE: The Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) has left cars and the valuables inside them at the mercy of thieves, as the authority is not issuing parking tokens or ensuring proper security at parks after the Punjab chief minister (CM) declared all public parks ticket-free places.

The CM took a similar initiative for hospitals across the province and cancelled the contracts for parking lots signed by hospital administrations. Most hospitals are providing free and secure parking facilities to visitors.

With the PHA refusing to provide secure parking to visitors to parks, the number of complaints of valuables being stolen from cars in parks has increased, a number of citizens told Daily Times. The parks where such complaints have been received are the Race Course Park, the National Park near Kalma Chowk and Iqbal Park in Allama Iqbal Town among others.

A senior PHA official said the authority knew that visitors to parks had registered various complaints in nearby police stations and with PHA authorities. However, he said the PHA had not taken any action yet.

Stolen: Muhammad Anwar, who suffered due to the negligence of the department, told Daily Times that he has been a regular visitor to Race Course Park. He said he had left his credit card and Rs 7,000 inside his car on Wednesday when he went for a walk in the park. However, he claimed that the cash and the card had been stolen when he returned.

He said the PHA head office was also in the Race Course Park, and if such thefts could occur there, one could imagine the security conditions in other parks. The citizens laid the responsibility of the thefts with the PHA.

Salma Pasha, a visitor to the National Park, said she recently lost her wallet and some other valuables, which she had left inside her car. She alleged that the park administration and the PHA had no interest in these facilities because there was no monetary benefit for them after the government forbade them from awarding parking contracts worth millions of rupees.

“They do not care about what a visitor goes through. The Punjab government should take action against all these people because they made a large number of people lose their belongings,” she stated. The administration of the Race Course Park has hoisted banners and set up boards stating that the administration will not be responsible for any theft.

PHA Director General (DG) Raheel Siddiqui told Daily Times that the PHA administration had already taken notice of these issues and was planning to provide proper tokens to visitors in different parks.

Confirmed: He confirmed that the PHA was receiving complaints of the theft of valuables from cars parked inside the premises. He said visitors to the National Bank Park were most vulnerable to such activities, and the police authorities had also asked PHA to resolve the issue at the earliest.

He said the PHA would ensure free of cost parking for cars only, but will not be responsible for the valuables inside them.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg13_1