Islamabad - The Islamabad Restaurants Association (IRA) on Friday urged the National Command and Operations Center (NCOC) to reopen the indoor dining facility to save the industry from further economic collapse.
A statement issued by the IRA said that in a letter to NCOC Chairman Asad Umar, it has demanded NCOC to reopen the indoor dining facility to save the industry from further economic collapse. IRA registered its utmost disappointment on the decision that NCOC took, on August 2nd 2021, regarding the immediate closure of indoor dining due to increase in COVID-19 positivity ratio nationwide. The IRA mentioned that standard operating procedure was established by the NCOC that allowed indoor dining based on vaccination of all restaurant staff and only vaccinated customers to be allowed indoor dining but now NCOC has put aside all the efforts made during past few months and banned indoor dining while it is unfair to bundle all restaurants into one category.
IRA also questioned the unfair treatment with the restaurant industry while other activities where the spread of COVID-19 has a higher probability continue. All malls are open, all public transport is transporting unchecked passengers, all gyms are open, all mosques are full to capacity, and political parties are holding unchecked huge rallies and all tourist locations are open without any implementation on SOPs.
The association believes that it is a complete misunderstanding of the industry when NCOC thinks that the restaurant industry is not really affected by this decision as outdoor and ecommerce delivery system is still open, as majority of the restaurants in Pakistan have over 80% dependency on indoor dining. Most of these restaurants cannot pay their salary and rent bills once indoor dining is closed. With the closure of indoor dining, dependency increases on third party e-commerce food delivery companies who charge more than 30% commission in most cases making the restaurant business unprofitable. The letter mentioned that for most restaurant owners, this is their only bread and butter. A closure of indoor dining makes them a zero revenue business and hence multiple restaurants have already closed in the last 18 months and 8 million homes are at risk of losing their jobs if the indoor dining is closed.
Earlier, in a meeting at the chamber of commerce, Chairman NCOC Asad Umar committed that the government will keep a separate amount in the budget to support the restaurant industry but nothing has been given to the industry except lockdown. This shows that protecting the restaurant industry is not on NCOC agenda.
PM Imran Khan has multiple times publicly said that he does not believe stopping economic activity, especially if it impacts the poor. While the closure will impact a large part of the middle class and poor of Pakistan which is definitely not the way this government would like to think of themselves.
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