KARACHI: Chairman Businessmen Group (BMG) Zubair Motiwala and President Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Shariq Vohra, while expressing sheer dismay over Sindh Govt’s decision to allow limited business timings from Sheri to 6:00PM and complete closure of businesses on Saturdays and Sundays, urged to revoke the relevant notification without further loss of time and allow all types of businesses to operate at full capacity throughout Ramazan otherwise the people, instead of dying due to diseases caused by coronavirus, would die themselves because of poverty, unemployment, mental stress, hunger or starvation.
In a statement issued, Chairman BMG and President KCCI stated that they have been urging the Sindh Government through letters to avoid imposing such unpopular decisions at a very crucial time as this was the peak season and if businesses are disallowed to carry out activities for two consecutive days and compelled to observe limited business timings during the remaining working days, it will prove to be disastrous for them throughout next year.
“We have sent letters to Chief Minister Sindh, Local Govt. Minister, Chief Secretary and Commissioner Karachi and also dropped messages from time to time but haven’t received any response which is a bit disappointing as we were not expecting this kind of response from Sindh Govt. which has always responded to KCCI’s pleas”, said Zubair Motiwala Chairman BMG, “Closure of businesses for two consecutive days and allowing them to operate with limited timings during the remaining days would result in bankrupting many businesses, trigger massive unemployment and chaos.”
Referring to large number of complaints being received from the shopkeepers of almost all the commercial markets of Karachi who were constantly seeking KCCI’s assistance, Chairman BMG stressed that the government has to come up with some other feasible solution which could save everyone from the pandemic and also ensure zero damage to the poor shopkeepers and small traders who cannot afford any further shocks. “In this regard, the business and industrial community is ready to fully comply with all the SOPs but closure would bring much more difficulties and miseries than opening and controlling the pandemic through the implementation of SOPs”, he added.
He further said, “These are challenging times and every member of the civil society is facing problems due to COVID crises. Perhaps, it is time when the government should think about extending monetary help to citizens especially the small shopkeepers who are now in net debt position and even paying rents to owners of their business premises has really become difficult.”
“It is the finding of our Research Department that many shopkeepers have already gone bankrupt and they are running their businesses in anticipation that this season of Ramazan will pull them out of crises. Hence, it is imperative that government should understand the real situation faced by the trading community”, he added.
