ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Atif Ikram Sheikh, Senior Vice President Sheikh Pervez Ahmed and Vice President Sheikh Abdul Waheed have congratulated Sheikh Ansar Aziz, Islamabad Mayor on taking over the charge of Capital Development Authority chairman and hoped that he would give priority attention to resolving the issues of business community that would help in promoting business activities and strengthening the local economy.
They said that most of the issues of business community were related to CDA, but the civic body was paying no attention to resolve the problems of trade and industry. They said many long-standing issues of business community including ICCI representation in CDA Board, cumbersome lease renewal process, difficult process of obtaining NOC from CDA’s Building Control Section, car parking plazas in markets, multiple trades on same plot & residential flats for small traders were still pending with CDA despite several meetings of ICCI on these issues with the civic body.
They said the state of infrastructure development in markets and industrial areas was not up to the desired level. The broken roads and footpaths, lack of parking facility, non-availability of filtration plants & public toilets, chocked sewerage system were some of the major issues of markets. Similarly, condition of roads in industrial areas was in bad shape while there were no street lights in many commercial and industrial areas.
They said despite several requests of ICCI, CDA did not take any steps to do carpeting of Islamabad Dry Port road as yet. Many residential, commercial and industrial areas in Islamabad were facing acute shortage of water. They said due to these issues, traders and industrialists were facing difficulties in promoting business activities.
They stressed that as Mayor Islamabad and Chairman CDA, Sheikh Ansar Aziz should take local business leaders on board to chalk out a comprehensive plan for better development of markets and industrial areas and to redress the issues of business community so that trade and industry could flourish without hindrance in the federal capital. They were of the view that the easy growth of business activities would bring many benefits as it would create new jobs, generate more tax revenue for the government and contribute to strengthening the local economy.
