ISLAMABAD: Muhammad Naveed, Senior Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ajmal Baloch President Markazi Anjuman-e-Tijran Pakistan, Kashif Chaudhry of Tajir Ittehad, Khalid Chaudhry Secretary Traders Action Committee, Islamabad, Imran Bukhari Senior Vice President Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders, Khursheed Qureshi President Jamiat ul Qureshi and Ch. Nadeem of PTI Traders Wing addressed a joint press conference at Islamabad Press Club and said that traders were feeling in secure due to absence of a balanced rent control act in Islamabad.
They said that 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 was blackmailed and he had to pay exorbitant rent, which was unjustified. 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 2pm to 4pm 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 shutter down and Dharna in front of Parliamant 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 the evictions of all traders including the 48 traders against whom eviction orders have been issued.
