Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan had announced a construction package to revive the economy that was badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and the package has started producing positive results. However, due to the short duration of the package, some investors have not been able to take advantage of it so he appealed to the government to extend the construction package till June 30, 2021 so that maximum investors could invest in Pakistan. He said this while addressing a delegation of the Real Estate Welfare Association that visited ICCI led by its President Ch. Abdul Rauf and discussed issues of the real estate sector with the Office Bearers of ICCI.

Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that ICCI was considering holding a big exhibition to highlight the potential of the real estate sector. He said that the development of the real estate and construction sector will help the businesses of over 70 allied industries to flourish, reduce unemployment and the economy would continue to boom. Therefore, promoting this sector should be the one of the top priorities of the government. He assured that he would play his role in solving the problems of the real estate sector to the best of his capacity. Speaking at the occasion, Chaudhry Abdul Rauf, President, Real Estate Welfare Group congratulated Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan and his team and said that the government had taken a wise step by announcing a construction package, but the bureaucracy had created obstacles by issuing SRO 924(I)/2020. He said that before the issuance of this SRO, stakeholders were not taken into confidence which would have a negative impact on the business activities of this sector and would shake the confidence of investors. Therefore, he demanded the immediate withdrawal of the SRO-924, which is contradictory to the construction package. He assured the Chamber of his full support in its efforts to promote the interests of the business community.

Expressing his views, former President ICCI Muhammad Ijaz Abbasi said that the construction package has started yielding positive results for the economy but at the same time an SRO has been issued which was creating misunderstandings. He demanded that CDA should fully restore the one-window operation to facilitate the business community. The delegation included Rana Qaiser, Ashfaq Chatha, Dr Arshad, Mian Yaseen, Yasir Abbasi and others.