RAHIM YAR KHAN: Stamp Vendors Association (SVA) members observed a strike on Monday against the unavailability of Rs50 and Rs100 stamp papers.

Association members also visited the office of Additional Deputy Commissioner Khalid Mahar to express their grievance at the unavailability of the papers.

Vendors Mukhtar Malik, Qazi Saleem, Muhammad Ahmed and Saleem Arian told reporters the district accounts office had not issued them stamp papers for the last two years. They also said their commission amounts on non-judicial stamp papers and revenue tickets had been four percent of the total amount, on notary two percent and on court fee tickets only 0.5 per cent since 1934 which was too small to fulfill their economic needs.

They said they had written to the chief justice of Pakistan, the chief minister, the chief secretary, the revenue secretary and the senior member of the Board of Revenue but to no avail.

The vendors alleged that a large number of fake and unlicensed stamp vendors were practicing in the district courts but the ADC(revenue) did not take any action against them while the district accounts office was issuing stamp papers to them without checking their legal status.

Assistant Commissioner Aitazaz Anjum assured them that their matter would be addressed in two days.

OKARA: The litigants of Okara have also been facing the shortage of stamp papers of Rs50 and Rs100 for the last two years . There are more than 300 licensed vendors who can sell stamp papers to litigants.

The Rs50 stamp paper is the most used document in Nadra, police, property matters and utility connections. The shortage of the papers forces thousands of people every day to buy a Rs200 paper at the place of Rs50 paper, which cost them up to Rs400 if drafting charges and stamps of the notary public and oath commissioner (lawyers) are also included.

Vendors said the shortage of papers stemmed from the e-stamp papers by the Punjab government. After the e-stamp papers system, the treasury branch is short of small value papers as they are not issued online.

District Account Officer Attaullah Malik told Dawn the national office in Karachi had slashed the supply of small papers. He said they had written to the chief treasury inspector at the national printing office in Karachi to meet the demand of papers.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2018