Traders demand waiver of six month rent

Islamabad: Tahir Abbasi, senior vice president, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has said that businesses have been ruined due to corona virus and lockdown was still going on in different areas of Islamabad.

The situation has sent small traders to the point of starvation. The government should either waive the six-month rent of small traders or pay it on its own as it has paid the electricity bills of businesses. He expressed these views while talking to Malik Rab Nawaz, president, Traders Welfare Association Jinnah Supermarket, Khalid Mehmood Chaudhry, secretary, Traders Action Committee. Executive Member of ICCI Mehboob Ahmed Khan and Saeed Ahmed Bhatti, Former Vice President ICCI were also present at the occasion.

Expressing his views on the occasion, former senior vice president of ICCI Khalid Chaudhry said that MCI has increased water bills by several hundred times which was tantamount to great injustice to the citizens and traders of Islamabad. He said that ordinary people were blaming the present PTI government while such increases were being made at the behest of Mayor Sheikh Ansar Aziz to discredit the government.

He demanded immediate reversal of the illegal increase in water bills. He added that due to the four-month lockdown, restaurants have been closed and thousands of people have lost their jobs.

He stressed that the government should allow restaurants to open under SOPs and weekly lockdown should be limited to one day instead of two days with an increase in the timings of businesses.