January 21, 2007	Sunday	Muharram 01, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 20: Arrest and eviction of a trader from his two shops in the Jinnah Super Market on Saturday ignited angry protests by fellow traders who shut down the city’s posh shopping centre.

Rafiqullah Orakzai was arrested in a raid on his house at dawn and a little later police broke into his two shops Orakzai Handicrafts and Pak-Afghan Handicrafts and confiscated all their goods.

It was a sequel to the long-running fight between the owners of the shops in the big market and their tenants.

Shopkeepers who arrived later to open their businesses instead shut down the whole market and gathered outside the two shops to stage a noisy day-long protest.

Local administration said the action against Mr Orakzai and his two businesses was taken in compliance with the orders passed by a local civil judge on a petition by Mr Rafiq Abbasi, the landlord of the two shops.

An ugly situation arose when police tried to stop the crowd of shopkeepers from breaking the locks it had put on the two shops after emptying them of their contents. But it backed off when the agitated shopkeepers, forming a human shield, threatened bloodshed if police intervened.

The protesting shopkeepers claimed that the handicrafts and antiques removed by the police from Mr Orkazai’s shops were worth millions of rupees as they included gems, precious stones and antique silver ornaments.

Eventually, Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Chaudhry Muhammad Ali managed to convince the traders to end their protest late in the evening.

Ajmal Baloch, organising secretary of Traders Action Committee and Tenants Association, said the traders agreed to disperse on the understanding that the landlord would payback goodwill money to the renter, while the administrator would return the confiscated items, release Mr Orakzai and withdraw cases against him.

Confrontation has long existed between the traders and shop owners of Islamabad but it accentuated after the promulgation of the Islamabad Rent Restriction Ordinance 2001. Tenant traders claim the law is heavily biased in favour of the landlords.

“This law is a joint product of the civil and military bureaucracies. Bureaucrats owns big markets and plazas in the capital,”alleged Muhammad Kashif, a member of the Traders Action Committee (TAC) and president of I-10 Markaz market.

Ambiguities in provisions of the law like the period of tenancy, rate of rent, increase in rent and eviction of tenants create friction between the tenants and the landlords, he said.