ISLAMABAD/LAHORE-The business community of the federal capital on Monday has called upon the government to immediately withdraw the new Covid-19 restrictions, imposed on the businesses to save from further losses.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, the businessmen have showed resentment over the National Command Operation Centre (NOCC)’s new guidelines for imposing restrictions on businesses to control the increasing cases of Covid-19 in the country. The traders expressed concerns over the new guidelines of NCOC for further restrictions, due to which the ICT Administration has issued a new notification to close all commercial activities, establishments, markets and amusement parks on Saturday and Sunday except for essential services.
Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) said that this decision would badly hit the businesses that were already struggling for revival due to previous lockdowns. He said that in these tough times, businesses needed relief measures from the government in taxes, interest rates, loans and utility charges, but instead of providing any relief, the government was taking steps that would put businesses into further deep troubles.
ICCI President said that majority customers normally do shopping on weekends due to lack of free time during weekdays. He criticized that closing businesses on Saturday and Sunday will not only create problems for customers, it would also cause more rush in markets on other days, and lead to further increase in the Covid-19 pandemic cases. He urged that businesses should be allowed to remain open on weekends to avoid rush and curb the spread of coronavirus. He emphasized that instead of closing businesses on weekends, ICT Administration should focus on enforcement of SOPs and assured that the business community would fully cooperate with it in SOPs’ implementation while running business activities. He also appealed to the traders not to allow customers’ entry to shops without a mask.
Yasir Ilyas appreciated the role of Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Hamza Shafqaat and his team for playing a frontline role against the spread of Covid-19 and cooperating with business community in running business activities.
Ajmal Baloch, President, All-Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tijaran said that due to previous lockdowns and restrictions, businesses have already suffered huge losses while the government has not provided any compensation in this regard. They said the closure of businesses would render thousands of people jobless, therefore, new restrictions should be withdrawn forthwith.
Abdul Rehman Khan, Vice President ICCI and the Presidents of various Market Associations of Blue Area, Super Market, Jinnah Super, F-10 and G-9 and others including Yousaf Rajput, Ahmed Khan, Asad Aziz, Muhammad Ejaz Abbasi, Raja Javed Iqbal, Khalid Chaudhry also spoke on the occasion and said that the new restrictions would create a lot of problems for them as well as causing them huge losses. Whilst assuring their full cooperation, They urged that the ICT Administration should allow businesses to run on weekends, and the government should form a new strategy against the spread of Covid-19 by taking the business community fully on board.
LCCI for allowing businesses till 8pm
The government’s decision to close the businesses, markets and activities by 6pm will hurt the already dwindling economy, said office bearers of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Monday.
LCCI President Mian Tariq Misbah, Senior Vice President Nasir Hameed Khan and Vice President Tahir Manzoor Chaudhry suggested allowing businesses till 8pm.
The business community understands the severity of the situation and is ready to cooperate with the government to contain the pandamic by following the SOPs, but shutting the businesses will not help the country in anyway, they said.
They said the coronavirus has taken large number of human lives and has also impacted the world economy. As the cases surge, the governments across the globe are implementing necessary social distancing practices and putting lockdowns. The extent and speed of collapse in activity and businesses that has followed is unlike anything experienced in lifetimes.
They said that a lot depends on the decisions of the government from now on, adding that the government has closed the markets on Eid last year which were resulted in loss of billions of rupees for the business community.
The people have invested so much for the upcoming Ramazan and Eid-ul-Fitr season and the recent lockdown will be lethal if the government doesn’t change decision of closing the markets at 6pm.
They urged the government to let the businesses operate with strict implementation of SOPs rather than closing them which will hurt the economic situation of the country. They said that it has already been noted that the projected growth rate will fall to under 2 percent. This makes the Lockdown more severe for the economic growth of the country.