KOHAT: The Kohat tehsil municipal administration is suffering a loss of about Rs20 million per month due to delay in re-auctioning of its hundreds of shops leased out back in 1955 and 1988 owing to resistance by the leaseholders, an official claimed on Friday.

He said the TMA leased out about 600 plots in 1955 at the meager annual rate of Rs150 to Rs400 per year. He said the leaseholders were resisting the TMA bid to re-auction its properties and fix rent as per the market rate.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told Dawn that the TMA had no concrete policy to charge the leaseholders as per the rates prevalent in the market.

The official said the first 33-year lease period had expired 1988. In the first auction, the leaseholders were to pay an annual lump sum rent of a few hundred rupees with a 30 per cent increase every three years. He added that the second auction was made in 1988, whereby 10 per cent annual increase was to be paid by the leaseholders with nominal annual rents.

The official said the third auction had been pending since 2021, adding the occupants of 600 shops were now paying only Rs7,000 to Rs15,000 per annum. He said the open market rent of a shop in Kohat was Rs30,000 per month.

The official said the leaseholders had also not paid premiums at the time of the auctions.

However, he said the owners of newly-auctioned shops and plazas were paying Rs5,700 monthly rent after having a premium of Rs3 million.

He also claimed some TMA leaseholders had sub-let shops for Rs35,000 per month, but the municipal body overlooked it.

He said after the 1955 auction, the leaseholders paid rent annually, while the rent was paid monthly by the leaseholders under the 1988 auction.

Meanwhile, sources confided to Dawn that TMA staff received bribes from leaseholders to put off the re-auction of shops and plazas.

They said the occupants of the plots were not vacating the shops on the pretext that they had constructed shops by selling their jewellery.

NADRA CENTRE: Social, political circles and students have assailed the authorities for shifting the Nadra facilitation centre from the Old Bus Stand area to the Bacha Khan library and sealing its two halls for the purpose.

Social activists Pir Shah Nawaz, Majid Falook Advocate and others said libraries needed complete silence so that people could study there with full concentration.

They said the decision would deprive the readers of a calm environment to study and a good source of learning.

They threatened to move the Peshawar High Court against the decision.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2023