KOHAT: The cantonment board and tehsil municipal administration here have doubled the rent of shops occupied by civilians in violation of the agreement, under which only 10 per cent annual increase is allowed.

The owners of shops rented out at Rs7,000 a month at the time of the auction are being forced to pay over Rs16,000 for a shop on the ground floor, while rent of a shop on the first floor, which started from Rs1,300 a month, has been raised to Rs5,000 in the cantonment area.

A shopkeeper told Dawn that the army personnel conducted auctions and went into all deals instead of the cantonment board officials and took the plea that the rent of similar shops in Kohat bazaar was between Rs15,000 and Rs25,000. He said that it was strange that instead of the board the officials in uniform came to them for announcing the new orders.

Sources said that All Shopkeepers Association had already filed a case in the Peshawar High Court against the exorbitant raise in the rent and challenged the 10 per cent increase.

Traders say this is violation of the agreement

An owner of a shop said that they took the shops in auction when the area where plazas and markets had now been constructed was a deserted place.

Similarly, the TMA has also increased the rents of their shops from Rs700 to Rs2,500 and Rs5,000 without any reason.

Owners of the TMA shops have also refused to pay the rent which was to be raised by 10 per cent a year and in some cases after three years. The sources said that TMA had given shops to the bazaar union office-bearers as a bribe for hiding their corruption. An owner of such a shop alleged that the bazaar union president had warned them that now he would raise the rent from Rs5,000 to Rs15,000 keeping in view the rising inflation.

ACTION DEMANDED: Elders of lower Orakzai Agency have demanded of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor to transfer the agency education officer for not taking action against a teacher who has been absent from duty for the last three months.

The elders told a press conference at Kohat Press Club on Thursday that nearly 500 students were registered in the government high school, Andkhel, but their education was affected due to teachers’ absence.

They claimed that one of the teachers Shahid Raza had been absent from duty for the last three months. The press conference was attended by elders, including Malik Kanaan Ali, Bahar Hussain, Ilham Ali, Spin Gul and Nandar Ali.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2015

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