ISLAMABAD: Sheikh Amir Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry has shown great concerns over the rising incidents of forced evictions of traders from shops as these incidents were creating insecurity among trading community about future of their businesses. He called upon the government to arrange early promulgation of rent control act in Islamabad to curb such unfortunate incidents.
He said the recent incidents of forced evictions from shops in Aabpara Market and I-10 Markaz have disturbed the peace of trading community as they were feeling insecure about their future. He said the absence of rent control law in Islamabad was the major cause of rising rent disputes and forced evictions of traders and emphasized that government should pay urgent attention to this serious issue. He said Prime Minister of Pakistan during a meeting with local traders in recent past had assured for promulgation of new rent law in the federal capital soon, but no visible progress was made as yet to resolve this issue.
Sheikh Amir Waheed said that an amended bill of rent restriction law for Islamabad was lying pending in the National Assembly since long and urged that government should arrange its early passage into law from the parliament to resolve this serious issue once for all. He said incidents of forced evictions from shops were badly affecting the business activities and the only solution of curbing such incidents was to promulgate the new rent law as soon as possible.
Muhammad Naveed, Senior Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that in consultation with all stakeholders, an amended bill of rent control act for Islamabad was prepared that was presented long time ago in the National Assembly. However, no action has been taken so far to pass the said bill into law and delay in its enactment was creating frustrations in the trading community. He said on the assurance of Prime Minister, traders of Islamabad had postponed their planned strike. However, the bill was still lying pending in NA. He appealed to the Prime Minister to honor his promise and get the bill passed from NA without wasting further time so that local traders could feel secure and focus on promoting business activities in a peaceful environment.
