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ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has called upon the government to extend the markets business timings till 10pm and for food outlets including the restaurants till 12 midnight.
ICCI President Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that with the increase in vaccination of people, the average positivity rate of Covid-19 pandemic has now come down to 5.9pc reflecting an improvement, therefore, it was important that the timings for businesses should be enhanced to give ample time to customers for shopping and avoid overcrowding in commercial areas.
Talking to a group of ICCI members belonging to various markets of Islamabad he said that shopping malls across Pakistan were ensuring strict implementation of SOPs by adopting the policy of no mask no entry and they should be allowed to operate as per normal working hours for 7 days a week.
He said cinemas worldwide were opened by maintaining social distancing between seats and the government should open them in Pakistan with 60-70pc capacity of viewers as these businesses were closed for more than a year and were now on the verge of bankruptcy.
Mr Khan said Pakistan had already suffered an estimated economic loss of Rs2.5 trillion in 2020 and was anticipated to suffer additional loss of over Rs1 trillion this year due to restrictions on businesses while the livelihoods of over 18 million workers have been affected badly.
“Therefore, it was high time that the government should remove all restrictions on businesses to save businesses from further damages, workers from job losses and economy from plunging into further recession,” the ICCI president said.
Meanwhile, ICCI senior vice president Fatma Azim held a meeting with NCOC authorities along with a delegation of restaurants association and stressed that indoor and outdoor dining in restaurants should be allowed as in the Middle East and most of the Europe they were allowed to operate indoor dining with acrylic or glass partitions between each table to maintain safe distance.