Traders warn of protest unless notices withdrawn

Chamber of commerce slams attitude of CDA officers

ISLAMABAD: Deploring the insulting behaviour of some officials of the civic body, traders in the city have demanded that notices issued to markets for their alleged non-conforming use should be withdrawn immediately.

This was stressed as representatives of Traders Welfare Association from Sector G-9 Markaz, the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) and the head of the ICCI’s Capital Development Authority (CDA) committee.

Raja Zulfiqar, the secretary general of the traders’ association, said that the non-conforming use notices were akin to harassing traders.



He said the CDA was forcing the business community to stage a protest.

He warned that if the non-conforming use notices were not withdrawn, the traders would be compelled to stage a sit-in in front of CDA Headquarters and that the CDA management would be responsible for any consequences.

Addressing the delegation, ICCI President Sheikh Amir Waheed strongly protested against the insulting behaviour adopted by the CDA Member Planning. Due to this approach of CDA, he said, problems of trade and industry in the city were increasing.



Waheed pointed out that the business community was playing a key role in the development of the local economy but higher officials of CDA were ignorant their issues. He alleged that the appointment of foreign nationality holders as officers in CDA had badly affected the performance of the body.

The ICCI chief urged Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to take notice of the situation.

Waheed warned that unless issues of markets were not resolved soon, traders would be forced to carve out a new strategy to protect their rights. He urged the acting CDA chairman to immediately withdraw non-conforming use notices issued to markets and to take strong action against CDA officers who were responsible for the issue.

ICCI Senior Vice President Naveed Malik, Vice President Nisar Mirza and ICCI-CDA Committee Chairman Ejaz Abbasi said that the CDA had been ignoring the development of local markets for years due to which the condition of markets had deteriorated. Echoing Waheed’s sentiments, they called for replacing the foreign national officers in CDA with local officers to address issues of the business community. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2018.