SAHIWAL: The district collector sealed 172 provincial government-owned commercial rented shops on Railway Road and Sarki Bazaar after the tenants failed to pay rent for the past 13 months amounting to Rs41.98 million.

The operation was carried out on the directions of District Collector Samiullah Farooq, Pera Force and the district administration. The operation has been ongoing for the last two days.

As per details, in Punjab commercial shops may be owned by various departments, but a notification issued on Nov 2, barred municipal committees from collecting rents, directing each department to collect rent from its own properties, with the district collector responsible for provincial government-owned rented shops at any place.

Following this directive, rents were re-evaluated and according to Colony Assistants Kazim Ali and Malik Yasin, payments continued until January 2025. Afterward, the DC imposed revised rents ranging from Rs50,000 to Rs500,000 depending on shop size, nature, and location.

Shopkeepers rejected the new rates, and since January 2025 no payments were made despite repeated notices and negotiations with representatives of local bazaars and markazi anjuman tajran. With no breakthrough and rent unpaid for 13 months, all 172 shops had been sealed. The DC stated that shops would only be reopened once owners cleared their dues under the rent agreement finalised in January 2025.

Sources told Dawn that PML-N MPA Malik Arshad was negotiating with the district administration to find a middle ground. However, no rapprochement was reached between the stakeholders till the filing of this report.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2026