ISLAMABAD: Traders of the federal capital have said that they were feeling insecure due to absence of a balanced rent control act in Islamabad and threatened to go on strike if rent control act was not passed shortly. This was stated by Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Senior Vice President Muhammad Naveed, Markazi Anjuman-e-Tajran Pakistan President Ajmal Baloch, Kashif Chaudhry of Tajir Ittehad, Traders Action Committee Islamabad Secretary Khalid Chaudhry, Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders (ICST) Senior Vice President Imran Bukhari, Jamiatul Qureshi President Khursheed Qureshi and Ch Nadeem of PTI (Traders wing) while addressing a joint press conference at Islamabad Press Club, on Saturday. The trade leaders said that when a trader starts business, owner enters into 2-year rent agreement with him. However, when the business runs successfully, the owner demands manifold increase in rent due to which the trader gets blackmailed and forced to pay exorbitant rent. They said MNAs Mian Abdul Manan and Asad Umar had presented a private bill of rent control act in the National Assembly, which was approved by the concerned standing committee and the ICT administration, but has not been passed into a law yet. They appealed to the Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Law Minister Barrister Zafarullah Khan to arrange urgent passage of amended rent control bill from the parliament. They warned that if the bill was not passed into rent law, traders of Islamabad would have no option except for launching a strong protest. For this purpose, protest would be started in various markets and banners would be displayed; while on December 19, all markets of Islamabad would observe a partial shutter-down strike from 2pm to 4pm and traders of every market would stage sit-in in their areas, they said. They said if their demands were still not met, traders would announce next course of action on December 21and could announce a complete shutter-down strike and a Dharna in front of Parliament House. They appealed to the prime minister and Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal that till the passage of the new rent law for Islamabad, orders should be issued to stop the eviction of all traders, including the 48 traders against whom eviction orders have been issued. They warned that in case of forced evictions, traders would strongly resist such moves and it could lead to law and order problems in the federal capital. Office-bearers and representatives of all local markets were present on the occasion and fully endorsed the decisions announced in the press conference. Published in Daily Times, December 10th 2017.