Traders may pull shutters down from 23rd against rent rules

Islamabad: The traders of the federal capital will stage shutter down strike from January 23 to press for their demand of changes in what they said biased Islamabad Rent Control Act.

“There will be complete shutter down strike on January 23 across the federal capital from Bara Kahu to Rawat and all the urban areas as the government has failed to accept genuine demand of 60,000 traders majority of whom are tenants,” Muhammad Kashif Chaudhry, President of All Pakistan Tajer Ittehad told a news briefing.

He said that Islamabad was given the Rent Control Act during Musharraf tenure saying it was totally one-sided, biased having no protecting to tenant shopkeepers in the Islamabad Capital Territory.

Kashif Chaudhry said as per the existing rent law, the landlord had been given the authority to throw out his tenants on a short notice where the same law also restricts Rent Controller to announce any decision which could provide any protection to tenant shopkeepers.

He said that as per Islamabad Rent Control Act, the aggrieved party enjoys no right of appeal against decision of the Rent Controller who most of the time announces a decision in a matter of three days.

Kashif Chaudhry told newsmen that draft of the amended rent law for Islamabad was vetted by the administration and it was being kept in the Ministry of Law to serve interest of some people. He regretted that the incumbent ruler have done nothing to provide relief to traders.

He said that the traders after closing down their businesses would march towards Parliament House on January 23. “We will keep sitting in front of the Parliament House till acceptance of our demand,” he said.