Islamabad : Senator and SAPM Dr. Sania Nishtar, distributed vending licenses and new eco-friendly carts among 150 street vendors under Ehsaas Rehribaan on Thursday. The licenses were issued at the Ehsaas Rehribaan Conference jointly organised by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI).
The event was themed, ‘Transformation of Street Vending in Islamabad and Lessons for Urban Pakistan’. Senator and SAPM Dr. Sania Nishtar was the chief guest at the conference. She distributed vending licenses, issued by the municipality, among the street vendors of Prime Minister’s Ehsaas Rehribaan initiative. The purpose of the conference was to highlight the transformation of street vending in Islamabad under the ongoing Ehsaas Rehribaan initiative and its lessons for replication in Urban Pakistan. A high number of officials and representatives from municipalities, government agencies, academia, microfinance banks, and civil society also attended. In her address, Dr Nishtar appreciated the first of its kind collaboration between government, academia, and private sector in structuring a sustainable intervention for providing an enabling environment to street vendors. “This initiative has been taken under the direct policy directives of the Prime Minister”, said Dr. Sania.
Further, she recognized the fact that this initiative creates opportunities for livelihoods and contributes to climate change efforts through solar system-fitted carts. He informed that by covering 177-street vendors in just 4 markets, the ongoing programme has already generated Rs.3.5 million in license fees, Rs.17.5 million in capital investment, and Rs.11.5 million in cart loans. The local street economy of estimated 20,000 vendors has the potential of generating Rs480 million in government revenues and an annual turnover in the range of Rs.36-43 billion. Programme has the strong transparency element attached, which is based upon the survey of only existing street vendors.