ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry called a meeting of the owners of local hotels, restaurants and bakeries to discuss the ongoing crackdown against these businesses and form a strategy to deal with this issue, which was attended by a large number of food sector businessmen.
The businessmen resented the surprise raids on local hotels, restaurants and bakeries on the pretext of checking food safety and hygiene standards without any prior notice or warning and called upon the ICT administration to immediately stop such crackdowns as they were damaging their long standing reputation and affecting their business.
They formed a seven members committee comprising Habibullah Zahid of Habibi Restaurant, Ch. Tauqeer of Des Pardes, Fida Hussain Raja of Kitchen Cuisine, Syed Imdad Ali Shah of Haleem Ghar, Sarfraz Haider of Dainty Fast Food, Suleman of Hanif Rajput and Raja Zulsham of Lahore Restaurant to talk with the ICT administration on this issue and determine future line of action.
Addressing the meeting, Muzzamil Hussain Sabri, president, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that ensuring food safety and hygienic standards on food outlets was a positive move, however, conducting surprise raids and sealing such businesses was not a good practice as it was demolishing the credibility of businessmen in minutes who spent years in establishing brand names.
He said the wise approach was that government should have defined SOPs and quality standards for food businesses and created proper awareness in stakeholders instead of launching sudden crackdowns. He said ICCI should be taken on board before taking any action against any hotel or restaurant because such actions of the administration were promoting fear factor in the business community.
Abdul Rauf Alam, Chairman Founder Group said that businessmen did not want confrontation with the government and ICT Administration should involve them in dialogue instead of resorting to coercive tactics. He said the ongoing crackdown was damaging the reputation of local food brands and would discourage new investment. He stressed that government should first develop a comprehensive criteria for food outlets and take action only against those that were found failing to comply with pre-defined standards.
