Grocery merchants reject 'smart lockdown'

The Grocery Merchants Association has strongly rejected the order to close grocery shops, supermarkets and general stores across the country at 9pm under the "smart lockdown", saying it would resist the decision.

"We condemn the decision and will also resist it. Businesses across the country have already been devastated. If shops are again forced to close at 9pm, the remaining businesses will be completely destroyed and thousands of employees working at these shops will have to be laid off to enforce the lockdown," the association said.

It said "businesses should be given free time" to keep the wheel of the national economy moving.

Central President Hafiz Arif Gujjar and divisional president Sheikh Saleem Parvez Butt said that over the past four years, all businesses, including grocery stores, had reached the brink of destruction. They said daily increases in petroleum prices had raised goods transportation fares, dealing another blow to the economy.

They said the smart lockdown would completely destroy the remaining business activity and increase unemployment. "We strongly condemn it," they said.

They said closing shops, markets, plazas and business establishments early under the smart lockdown would make it impossible to achieve tax targets.