TIMERGARA: The local police on Thursday agreed to reopen all the 57 sealed shops at Balambat Bazaar when a jirga of elders held talks with District Police Officer Kashif Zulfiqar at his office.

The jirga was led by Balambat tehsil nazim Imranud Din. Former MPA Mohammad Zamin, district councillors Shad Nawaz Khan and Alamzeb and tehsil naib nazim Zeenul Abideen also took part in negotiations.

It was decided that a committee comprising traders, local government representatives and local police would fix rent of shops built on the state land and resolve other issues regarding the shops. After successful talks with the DPO, the jirga reopened all the 57 sealed shops.

Police had sealed the shops at Balambat Bazaar adjacent to the police station on Wednesday for not renewing the rent agreement. Police claimed that shops were property of the police department and shopkeepers had been paying only Rs112 per month as rent for the last 40 years.

They said that the department wanted 10 per cent yearly increase in rent but the shopkeepers wanted only 10 per cent increase after every three years.

Talking to this scribe, the shopkeepers said that only five months ago the court had increased the rent from Rs112 to Rs400 per month and ordered fixation of annual increase in rent by consent of both the parties. However, they alleged, only after a lapse of few months, police wanted to renew the agreement and increase rent of the shops.

The shopkeepers showed readiness for a yearly increase of eight percent in the rent. They said that some 40 years ago they paid Rs3,000 each to police for construction of the police station and since then they had been paying Rs80 per month for a single shop when other shops in the bazaar were rented out for only Rs20 per month.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2017