Marriage hall owners issue ultimatum

Marriage hall owners and other people associated with the wedding industry warned the government that they would reopen wedding venues from July 4 of their own volition if the authorities did not give them permission to do so.

Staging a protest near Five Start Chowrangi on Sunday, demonstrators affiliated with the halls, catering, decorating and other related businesses asked the government to define standard opening procedures (SOPs) for wedding events by Friday.

They pointed out that their businesses had been closed for the last four months due to the pandemic, depriving thousands of decorators, waiters, caterers, photographers and others of their livelihoods.

Placing a dummy on the road to portray a body, they claimed the financial crisis was resulting in people committing suicide out of despair.

"We do not need alms. We can earn our incomes by working hard. But we should be given our rights through the restoration of our workplaces; our lives are becoming more and more miserable with every passing day," said one of the protesters.

Meanwhile, marriage hall owners claimed they had been paying their employees from their own pockets but were now struggling to manage amid the financial crunch.

"We have proposed ways to function in accordance with SOPs to the authorities, including the chief minister, other relevant ministers and the city commissioner, but the government has not taken any action," complained the owner of a marriage hall.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPAs Raja Azhar Khan and Dr Imran Ali Shah attended the protest to express solidarity with the protestors. They claimed that Prime Minister Imran Khan had tried to keep workers' incomes intact during the pandemic, which was why he had stressed the need for a smart lockdown, adding that they would raise the matter in the Sindh Assembly.