ISLAMABAD:
The city administration has finally moved to ease heavy congestion in the city district courts area in F-8 Markaz by shifting the Excise and Taxation (ET) Department office to Sector H-8. The office will remain closed for a week during the move.
The step is being taken to cater to the problem of security and touts, Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Mujahid Sherdil said on Wednesday. He said the excise office would switch with the local government office, currently located in Sector H-8.
Sherdil said the decision was taken in the wake of the attack on the district courts in March, which killed 13 people including a judge.
He said that there was a lot of congestion, especially in the parking area due to the excise office. The presence of touts outside the current excise office was another issue which the city administration has tried and failed to resolve.
Sherdil said he was hopeful that after shifting the excise office, the illegal practice would be overcome. “It is difficult to control touts in F-8 because it is an open area, but in H-8, they will not even be able to enter the building,” he added.
F-8 Markaz Traders Welfare Association President Qamar Zaman Abbasi said it was a good step by the administration. He demanded that the lawyers’ offices should also be shifted to the purpose-built judicial complex, explaining that their businesses were affected due to “illegal chambers set up by lawyers”.
Islamabad District Bar Association President Nasir Kayani said that this was the first positive step taken by the administration towards the betterment of the city courts. He opined that the existence of the excise office and a National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) branch had made the area “a total mess”.
When asked, why lawyers were reluctant to shift their chambers, Kayani said the lawyers would not shift till the government moved them to the complex, which is currently serving as the IHC building.
For the past few years, lawyers have established illegal chambers in-and-around F-8 Markaz and have also occupied a public football ground near the courts. The IHC is supposed to move to a new building on the Constitution Avenue, but that project is still in its planning stages.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 26th, 2014.
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