Traders demand relaxation in lockdown

Suggest partial resumption of business activities

ABBOTTABAD: The Abbottabad traders on Saturday demanded from the provincial government to provide relaxation in the lockdown to small traders as further closure of businesses would cause them huge financial losses.

The Abbottabad All Traders leaders Muhammad Ashfaq and Abdul Hameed Khan Jadoon in a statement said relaxation in lockdown should be given to at least the small businesses. They said daily wagers are mostly associated with construction work and businesses associated with construction work should be partially opened till lifting the lockdown completely.

The trade leader said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has set April 14 for ending the lockdown after which businesses would resume. They suggested that small traders have been inflicted huge losses and could not wait more and different trades should be given days for opening businesses. Explaining the suggestion, they said that sanitary, paints and hardware traders should be allowed to open shops on Monday, while iron dealers should be allowed to open do business on Tuesday, Wednesday should be set for cloth merchants and garments stores, Thursday should be given to shoe stores, stationery and books and photo copies and computer shops and the remaining days should be fixed after the consultation of trade bodies for barber shops and other businesses.

They further added that shops will remain open from 10am to 3pm while food outlets, grocery stores, restaurants, bakeries and medical stores should remain open from 10am to 6pm on daily basis.

With this planning, there will be restricted movements in Bazaars and also allow full-time operation of goods distribution transport to be allowed 24 hours for the smooth supply of goods to the shops. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2020.