ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) on Saturday urged the government to extend the business timings in markets as well as food businesses.
According to the details, traders have requested the government to extend business hours to 10pm instead of 8pm and up to midnight for food outlets and restaurants so that business activities can be revived and contribute to with the economy.
ICCI President Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that with the increase in vaccination of people, the average positivity rate of the Covid-19 virus has now come down to 5.9 per cent, reflecting an improvement.
Similarly, he added that it was important to give customers time for shopping to avoid overcrowding in commercial areas while shopping malls across Pakistan should be allowed to operate as per normal working hours all week.
He said that cinemas worldwide had opened while maintaining social distancing between seats and urged the government to alos open them in Pakistan with 60 to 70 per cent capacity of viewers as these businesses have been closed for more than a year and are now on the verge of bankruptcy.
He further said that Pakistan has already suffered an estimated economic loss of Rs.2.5 trillion in 2020 and was anticipated to suffer an additional loss of over Rs.1 trillion this year due to restrictions on businesses while the livelihoods of over 18 million workers have been badly affected.
Meanwhile, ICCI Senior Vice President, Fatma Azim, along with a delegation of the restaurants association held a meeting with NCOC authorities and urged them to allow indoor dining with precautions similar to the Middle East and most of Europe, which were using acrylic or glass partitions between each table.
Owners of restaurants and shopping malls agreed that they were willing to install the same sort of partitions to maintain social distancing.
