Capital traders warn of launching protest for enforcement of Rent Control Act

Islamabad: “The traders are feeling insecure due to absence of a balanced rent control act in Islamabad. When a trader starts business, owner enters into 2 years rent agreement with him. However, when the business runs successfully, the owner demands manifold increase in rent due to which the trader are blackmailed and he has to pay exorbitant rent, which is unjustified.”

This was stated by Muhammad Naveed, senior vice president, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), Ajmal Baloch, president Markazi Anjuman-e-Tijran, Kashif Chaudhry of Tajir Ittehad, Khalid Chaudhry, secretary, Traders Action Committee, Imran Bukhari, senior vice president od Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders, Khursheed Qureshi, president of Jamiat-ul Qureshi and Ch. Nadeem of PTI Traders Wing addressed a joint press conference at Islamabad Press Club.

They said MNA Mian Abdul Manan and MNA from Islamabad Asad Umar had presented a private bill of rent control act in the National Assembly, which was approved by the concerned Standing Committee and the ICT Administration, but it has not been passed into a law as yet.

They appealed to the Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Federal Law Minister Barister Zafarullah Khan to arrange urgent passage of amended rent control bill from the Parliament.

They warned that if the bill was not passed into rent law, the traders of Islamabad would have no option except for launching a strong protest. For this purpose, protest would be started in various markets and banners would be displayed while on Dec: 19, 2017, all markets of Islamabad would observe partial shutter down strike from 2 p.m to 4 p.m and traders of every market would stage sit in at their near Chowks.

If still the demand was not met, traders would announce next course of action on December 21, 2017 and traders could announce complete shutterdown and Dharna in front of Parliament House.

They appealed to the Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal that till the passage of new rent law for Islamabad, orders should be issued to stop the evictions of all traders including the 48 traders against whom eviction orders have been issued.

They warned that in case of forced evictions, traders would strongly resist such moves and it could lead to law and order problems in the federal capital. The office bearers and representatives of all local markets were present in the press conference and they fully endorsed the decisions announced in the press conference.