By Asad Cheema
ISLAMABAD: Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) said that almost 90 percent affairs of business community in Islamabad were related to the CDA and emphasized that the government should include sitting President of ICCI in CDA Board to protect the genuine interests of private sector during the policy making process of the civic body and help resolve key issues of the business community.
He urged that CDA should set up a One Window Operation in true spirit in
order to facilitate the business community and the citizens of Islamabad in their CDA related day-to-day issues. He said that the business community has to visit various departments of CDA for various services and redress of
issues, which consumes a lot of their precious time. However, the availability of one window facility would save them from many troubles as they would get all the required services of CDA from one counter. He said this while addressing a delegation of CDA Officers Association that visited ICCI led by its Secretary General Namat Ullah Masood, Riaz Khan Chairman, Mian Muhammad Chief Patron, Abdur Rahim Secretary Admin and Bilal Khan Office Secretary were in the delegation.
Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that CDA’s approval process of commercial buildings plans was quite lengthy as investors have to wait for months and even for years for approval of buildings plans and stressed that CDA should speed up this process for expeditious approval of commercial buildings plans that would give boost to investment in the federal capital. He said that after applying for completion certificates of buildings, business community has to wait for a long time and emphasized that CDA should streamline this process to avoid unnecessary delay in the issuance of completion certificates of commercial buildings.
Ms. Fatma Azim Senior Vice President and Abdul Rehman Khan Vice President ICCI said that the civic body has made manifold increase in the property tax and water & allied charges, which have enhanced the cost of doing business
in Islamabad and stressed that CDA should rationalize these taxes to facilitate the growth of business activities. They further said that instead of demolishing the commercial buildings for encroachments, CDA should consider regularizing them on receipt of certain charges as demolishing of constructed buildings entailed huge losses to the investors.
Speaking at the occasion, Namat Ullah Masood Secretary General and Riaz Khan Chairman, CDA Officers Association assured their cooperation for resolving the key issues of the business community. They said that ICCI and CDA
Officers Association have common objectives to promote the interests of their members, therefore, close collaboration between the both sides would help in achieving common goals.
Abdul Rehman Khan Vice President ICCI, Muhammad Ejaz Abbasi former President ICCI, Khalid Chaudhry, Saif ur Rehman Khan, Zarif Khan, Mian Ramzan and others also spoke at the occasion and stressed for close working relationship between ICCI and CDA Officers Association for the better development of the city including markets and industrial areas in order to spur the growth of business activities.
