Provincial Minister for Education and Labour Saeed Ghani said that the government is well aware of the traders’ predicaments due to continuous business closure. However, the government is helpless in the current situation to continue with the lockdown as we cannot afford to let the virus spread haywire.
The education and labor minister was meeting a business community of the province at the Sindh Secretariat on Thursday. The forum included representatives from different trader associations and office bearers of business organizations. A spokesman for the Sindh government Murtaza Wahab, Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shalwani, Additional IG Police Ghulam Nabi Memon, Deputy Commissioner South Irshad Soldier, and other government officials were also present on the occasion.
Ghani extended his gratitude to the traders of conforming to the extension in lockdown upon the Sindh government’s appeal two days ago. He said that traders’ recommendations for the resumption of businesses will be laid before the CM Sindh’s Task Force for review and consideration and if required the trader could also soon meet the chief minister in person.
He said that the government’s prime focus is to stop the spread of the infection among the public because looking at its growth rate across the world, we are definitely not in a position to come out of such a crisis without bearing heavier losses.
Trade association representatives urged the government to ensure that business activities, though limited, must be resumed in Karachi.
Chairman Sindh Traders Union Association Jameel Ahmed Paracha said that the government must ensure through its SOPs that business units could be operated for a few hours daily.
All Karachi Trade Union Association’s chairman Sharjeel Goplani said that on the one hand, the city is under lockdown for nearly a month, yet the K-Electric has started disconnecting power source in many markets due to non-payment of bills despite chief minister’s order of providing relief to consumers.
He said that traders honored the government’s appeal and many have paid their staff a full salary for the last month despite lockdown.
Haroon Chand of jewelers association pointed out that due to prolonged closure of markets, jeweler fears their wares might have been stolen.
The traders also suggested the government to provide them interest-free loans and allow operations for only two or three days to deal with the current economic and social crisis in a suitable way.
Traders demand interest-free loans amidst lockdown in Sindh
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