PESHAWAR, Sept 8: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has announced a standing operating procedure (SOP) for renting out houses to foreigners, diplomats and international and local NGOs, and directed the relevant officials to strictly follow the SOP and clearly intimate the Home and Tribal Affairs Department about their intent and purpose of hiring a house.

The Home and Tribal Affairs Department said this on Sunday in a statement furnished to the provincial police officer for implementation in the province in general and in Peshawar in particular.

The Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) and other development authorities in districts, directorate general, excise and taxation/police have been asked to maintain proper record of all such houses rented out to foreigners throughout the province and Peshawar. It said that the record should also be shared with the home department, federal institutions concerned and provincial police.

It was stated that those intending to hire a building would have to prepare a deed with attachment of complete copy of machine readable passport, including visa pages, letter of employment from the firm/NGO/INGO/consulates/embassies and computerised national identity card copy of the sponsors/real estate agent.

The house will only be occupied by the person against whose name the contract deed has been made and change of occupancy will entail a new contract deed. The statement said that de-hiring would be intimated by the occupant and owner to the PDA/other development authorities in the province or directorate general excise and taxation and deputy commissioners concerned with dates which in turn would intimate the DG PDMA/PaRRSA, deputy chief of protocol, government of Pakistan, ministry of foreign affairs, camp office at Peshawar, home department and other federal entity.

In case the rented accommodation is used as a guest house, record of short stay guests would be maintained as per the SOPs applicable to guest houses. In case of prolonged stay i.e. beyond one month, the requirement of renting to foreigners must be followed.

Besides, proper maintenance of record of foreigners i.e. copy of machine readable passport, identity card and purpose/place of their visit in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and regular intimation of details of foreigners’ stay to special branch police will be a must.

Guest houses shall maintain proper record of the visitors staying with them and their arrival shall immediately be intimated to the special branch police for issuing temporary residential permit. Joint agreement reached between the owner and tenant duly signed by the property dealer is required to be furnished to the special branch and housing authorities. Owner of the house/ property must furnish security bond worth Rs1,000 to the extent that he will be responsible for future good behaviour of his tenant. Both the owner and tenant shall ensure on a security bond of Rs1,000 value that that the premises/property rented out would not be used for any activities detrimental to the society as well as state.

According to the SOPs, when some doubt arises about change of occupants e.g. at Peshawar, a joint team representing DG PDA, DG excise and taxation, DG PDMA/PaRRSA/deputy commissioner and a representative of police department will inspect the house before the contract deed is signed. The same procedure will be followed in other districts of the province.

According to the statement, violation of the SOPs would entail scrutiny of accommodation by police, cancellation of visa, investigation for deportation of foreigners etc while the owner will be deprived of renting out the house for next five years, and the property dealer’s licence, who contracted the deed, will be cancelled. A cushion of three months may be given with a cut-off date to all presently occupied/hired houses to regularise according to the new SOP. After the cut-off date a joint inspection by the team of DG PDA and other relevant officials (in case of Peshawar) and similar joint inspection teams (in case of other districts) be carried out to take action against the defaulters.

It said that each inspection would be carried out in a soft manner so that the owners and tenants might not consider it as a raid.

The DCs by imposing Section 144 may bind owners and property dealers to inform the police station concerned of the leases of properties etc to the foreign nationals.

“Till now, the Chitral DC has issued the requisite order under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act V of 1898) for implementing the above SOP in its true spirit,” it said.