The Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders (ICST) said Monday unilateral decision of the government to regulate property market had damaged the sector.
ICST Patron Shahid Rasheed Butt said authorities should have taken stakeholders into confidence before taking a decision, which has resulted in 80 per cent fall in the business.
He said that the stakeholders in the realty sector have not accepted the steps taken by the government to regulate the property market, while investment in the property market is falling to an extent that it has started shrinking economy.
Butt said that the fall was damaging construction sector, which was providing jobs to millions while dozens of allied industries supporting the construction sector were also feeling the pinch of the situation.
The property market had become dormant, while many expatriates have lost interest in the realty market which resulted in reduced remittances, he added.
He noted that the home remittances and foreign investment continue to drop which is disturbing. Pakistan is heavily dependent on the remittances, but the policymakers continue to cite the fall of the economic slowdown in the oil producing countries.
The business leader said that fall in the remittances will widen the trade deficit, which had already been broadened to almost 30 per cent in the first quarter amounting to over $7 billion.
