Police arrest 10 people over failure to submit documents

Register six cases against owners of houses for rent and property dealers

QUETTA: The Quetta police have arrested 10 people, including owners of houses for rent and property dealers, for not submitting their documents in the recent crackdown.

The latest crackdown is being conducted under the Balochistan Restriction of Rented Buildings (Security) Act 2015 passed by the Balochistan Assembly.

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For the first time action has been taken against the owners of houses for rent and property dealers as police registered six cases against the people under custody.

"We have registered 18,000 of 36,000 rented buildings during the campaign. This mass crackdown will continue until the registration is completed,” said a senior police official. “In the process, owners of buildings for rent will not be pardoned for neglecting submission of relevant documents."

The owners of houses for rent and property dealers can face up to one year imprisonment or heavy fine. Under the restrictions of the act, owners of houses for rent are obliged to submit written agreements and documents to the nearest police station. Police or Levies will issue receipt after completing all legal formalities.

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On January 20, the Sariab police had registered four cases against five people, including owners of houses for rent, under Sections 3 and 10 of the act.

Two other cases were registered in Jinnah town and Pashtoonabad police stations where four people were taken into custody.

According to the police officials, before the implementation of the act, a vast awareness campaign was held for eight months. Fifteen of 22 police stations have completed their survey and identified more than 36,000 buildings rented out. Later on, the police provided special registration forms to the owners of the buildings rented out to complete the process.

Government officials believe registration of rented properties under the act would provide police collective data about the residents of the houses rented out, which would help security forces in controlling criminal and terrorism activities in the city as criminals often use rented houses as their hideout before executing their game plan.