Islamabad: Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Hamza Shafqat informs dawn that section 144 has been imposed for a time period of 2 months under which owners and dealers are prohibited to rent out their properties to any tenant without consent of police.

This was essentially done on the request of the police department due to increasing rate of criminal activities. Recently a gang of thieves were traced out residing in a rented house in Rawalpindi. Hence, it is suspected that malefactors perform their activities while camouflaging it by residing in the vicinity themselves. So it is vital to supervise the claiming of properties by the police.

The SSP of Islamabad devised a proforma which contains the necessary information like the CNIC and the phone number to verify the information of the tenants. Police officials said that the registration of tenants was introduced back in 2009 through which the police kept records and hunted down the ones guilty of such activities but then the criminals also changed their strategy by moving from hotels to dense wooded areas. Thus after the Rawalpindi case came to light police suspects that a number of criminals also have taken  houses in Islamabad and it has to be countered.