PESHAWAR: The Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) has urged the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government to devise a strategy regarding the enforcement coronavirus standard operating procedures (SOPs) in consultation with the traders’ community, district administration and departments concerned.
The demand was made by a delegation of the SCCI led by SCCI President Sherbaz Bilour during a meeting with KP Chief Secretary Dr Kazim Niaz here on Thursday. SCCI Senior Vice President Engr Manzoor Elahi and SCCI Secretary General Sajjad Aziz and others were present in the meeting.
The meeting was told that traders’ community has confronted enormous difficulties due to the present business environment amid the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic which is why businesses could not afford to undergo any sort of lockdown.
The participants proposed that the district administration should devise a strategy to create awareness among the masses regarding coronavirus SOPs so that businesspersons were not subject to unnecessary actions and harassment on the pretext of violating the law.
Bilour said the SCCI and traders fully support the enforcement of SOPs and urged the government to avoid sealing shops and markets without prior notice, adding that miseries of the pandemic affected business community should not be multiplied.
Further, Manzoor Elahi asked the government to exploit rich natural and mineral resources available in newly merged tribal districts, adding that it would help stabilise the provincial economy and create job opportunities for the tribal youth.
The KP chief secretary asked the chamber to prepare detailed proposals for operations in close coordination with district administration, home secretary and other departments concerned.
However, he stressed that the government and its relevant departments have a prime duty to implement SOPs with letter and spirit to contain coronavirus cases which have rapidly surged up in the province as the second wave kicks off.
