Halls, marquees open as Covid restrictions end

Owners, caterers, employees overjoyed at resumption of business

RAWALPINDI:

Over 10,000 wedding halls and marquees in Rawalpindi opened their doors on Tuesday after remaining shut for the past six months due to lockdown imposed by the government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The owners and workers who had been sitting idle for the last six months are overjoyed on reopening of the business as well as people for being able to host wedding functions.

The management of halls and the people have vowed to implement Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) devised by the government to prevent coronavirus spread.

The workers of the wedding halls are also overjoyed as the owners have stared contacting them for re-joining. Roughly, up to 70,000 people are associated with wedding halls as waiters, dishwashers, security guards, gardeners, administrators and sanitary workers.

Marquees Association leaders Haji Muhammad Ibrahim and Ismail Abbasi said that they had started renovation and cleanliness of the wedding halls before their first function after six months.

They added that some old workers who were sacked after the lockdown situation was contacted several times but they didn’t respond. However, the officials said that they were hiring new people instead of them.

A senior member of the Wedding Halls Association, Asif Iqbal, told The Express Tribune that wedding halls and marquees have reopened in the garrison city, like the rest of the country, under SOPs.

He added that hall managements have also started accepting bookings.

Regarding implementation on SOPs, Iqbal said that representatives of the association visited different halls to check if precautionary guidelines were being followed.

Iqbal said that every hall will allow half the guests than its capacity, adding that the number of seats on each table has been halved too. This has been done to ensure social distancing between the people, Iqbal added.

The official said that they were trying their best to ascertain that all SOPs were followed diligently by guests. Iqbal added that many wedding halls had sacked their working staff due to the financial loss they suffered during the lockdown.

However, the official said with activities in wedding halls restored, he hoped those who lost their jobs will get them back.

Catering Union President Khursheed Ahmed and Banaras Chaudhry told that although they have not received written orders yet, they were hopeful of getting them soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2020.