Traders ask govt to pass amended rent control law
Shopkeepers in Rawalpindi watching a cricket match between Pakistan and India. PHOTO: AFP / FILE
The commercial areas of the capital are in a dire need of revising the obsolete rent laws, the apex body of trade and business community of Islamabad said on Saturday.
Shopkeepers remain vulnerable to landlords, who can easily evict tenants at the drop of the hat, said Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) top official.
According to ICCI, the government should ensure the passage of the amended bill of new rent law from the Parliament for early declaration of a balanced rent control act in Islamabad.
The ICCI said it would resolve the longstanding issue of local traders.
The ICCI President Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said during a meeting with the newly elected office-bearers of the Traders Welfare Association of Sitara Market in G-7 Markaz of Islamabad.
Ilyas said that the promulgation of a balanced rent control act in the city was the need of the hour as it was a long standing demand of the traders. He said that the absence of a rent law was not only giving rise to rent disputes between the tenants and landlords, it also affected the business activities as well.
Therefore, he demanded that a balanced rent law should be promulgated which should protect the genuine rights of the landlords and the tenants.
The ICCI president further said that an amended bill of rent control act was passed by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly and urged the National Assembly to pass it at the earliest.
He said the chamber would extend full cooperation in that regard and would help in developing business activities in the federal capital. Expressing his views, Founder Group Chairperson Mian Akram Farid said that no development work had been done in any market of the city for the last four years due to which the problems of traders were increasing.
The newly elected president of Traders Welfare Association Syed Altaf Hussain Shah and Secretary General Rana Akram said that traders had been facing financial difficulties due to Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns for the last seven months and they needed relief measures from the government.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 18th, 2020.