By Asad Cheema
ISLAMABAD: Senior Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Tahir Abbasi has said that being the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad should be the ideal city of the country in terms of development but no development work has been done in the city for the last four years. Due to this situation, markets and industrial areas are presenting a dilapidated look as footpaths and roads are in broken condition and other infrastructure is also in bad shape.
He said that Kahuta Industrial Triangle also lacks facilities while traders and customers are facing problems due to lack of parking in business centres.
He said that the sewerage system in Islamabad is not properly working while 90 percent filtration plants are non-functional.
He said that the sanitation system is also very poor while most of the city is deprived of street lights except for a few major highways.
Tahir Abbasi further said that Chairman CDA Amir Ali Ahmed during a meeting had assured development works but they were not included in the budget. He said that if development works in Islamabad are not started soon, the condition of markets and industrial areas would further deteriorate which would badly affect the promotion of trade and industrial activities.
He demanded that CDA should pay urgent attention to this important issue for facilitating the growth of business activities.
Vice President ICCI, Saif-ur-Rehman Khan said that internal fight between the CDA and the MCI is affecting the city’s development. He said that the markets do not seem to be a part of Islamabad due to their dilapidated condition. MCI has sold the footpaths in markets, so MCI is responsible for the encroachments due to which business activities are also suffering.
He demanded that encroachments from markets should be removed, sanitation system be improved and development works should be started soon for the better development of markets and industrial areas in Islamabad that would facilitate the promotion of business activities ultimately producing beneficial results for the economy.
