RAWALPINDI, Jan 27: Traders in the cantonment areas have demanded a check on sky-rocketing rents of shops seeking imposition of Punjab Rent Control Act in the garrison limits. They said they had no security as the owners of the commercial properties can evict them from shops if another party offers them handsome rent.

General Secretary Rawalpindi Cantonment Traders Association Zafar Qadri told Dawn that the rent of commercial property had increased by more than 500 per cent in the last 10 years.

Shops that used to be rented at Rs10,000, Rs20,000 and Rs30,000 per month in 2002, are currently fetching Rs100,000, Rs200,000 and Rs300,000 respectively which is 10 times higher than the prices prevailed 10 years back.

Small shops in other cantonment areas like Qasim Market, R A Bazaar and Lal Kurti that were available for Rs5,000 and Rs8,000 per month in 2000 are now offered at Rs25,000 and Rs45,000 per month.

The traders’ leaders demand replacement of the existing Rent Restriction Act in cantonment areas with Punjab Rent Control Act arguing that the current act has no check over the property owners resulting in surging rents.

“The tenants in cantonment areas have no direct access to courts and the dispute between owner and tenant is resolved by rent controller first and then we move courts while in city areas the tenants directly approach courts,” Mr Qadri said.

“Our business is not secure in cantonment and a trader who pays Rs20,000 per month for a shop is replaced immediately if the owner is offered Rs30, 000 by another party for the same shop and this is all because Punjab Rent Control Act is not applicable here,” Mahmud Mughal, another trader said.

He said that a uniform policy should be adopted in order to keep a check on the spiraling rents saying that soaring rents ultimately affect end buyers.

However, Cantonment Executive Officer (CEO) Rana Manzoor told this reporter that tenants should approach his office in case they are overcharged and said that his office would follow the law.

He acknowledged that dispute cases between owners and tenants had increased adding Vice-President of the RCB was hearing them.

He said since the federal government exercised jurisdiction in cantonment areas, laws of Punjab could not be applied there. — Inamullah Khattak