MULTAN: Caretaker Chief Minister Punjab Mohsin Naqvi said on Tuesday that legitimate problems of the traders’ community would be resolved to achieve economic targets and promised to consult them on markets’ closure timings. The chief minister expressed these view during a meeting with delegations of traders and lawyers here at circuit house.
He met with delegations from district bar associations of Multan, Vehari and Lodhran and handed over cheque as grant-in-aid for bars to their elected representatives. Rs 10 million grant cheque for Multan bar was handed over to its president Waheed Bukhari and gen-eral secretary Altaf Gilani, Rs 5 million cheque to Vehari bar president Liaquat Sanpal and general sec-retary Nisar Ahmad, and Rs 5 million cheque to Lodhran bar president Kamran Khan and general secre-tary Ejaz Sahu, said an official press release. Naqvi said that traders were an important part of society and goals of development could be achieved by resolving their problems. The traders’ representatives presented their proposals, demands and recommendations. the chief minister said that traders community would be consulted on the matter concerning schedule for mar-kets’ closure. He also promised to seriously consider their proposals regarding expansion of Multan Industrial Estate and a cold storage near Multan International airport.
Provincial Ministers Amir Mir, Azfar Ali Nasir, additional chief secretary south Punjab, commissioner, deputy commissioner and other officials were present.
Last week, Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal said that it was agreed during a National Economic Council (NEC) to close markets and commercial centres by 8pm from July 1 to conserve en-ergy.
“The provinces have agreed to implement this decision from July 1,” he said while speaking to report-ers after concluding a press conference in Islamabad where he shared decisions taken during the meeting of the NEC — the country’s highest forum of the federation on economic decision-making —earlier on June 6.
The NEC meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and approved estimated budget fig-ures. According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), provincial governments were urged at the meeting to implement the energy conservation plan that had already been ap-proved by the federal cabinet.
The plan was taken up at a cabinet meeting in January, where it was proposed to close markets at 8:30pm and wedding halls at 10pm, use efficient electronic appliances and reduce power consumption in government offices by 40 per cent.
Measures such as the imposition of additional duties on inefficient electric fans, use of light-emitting diode LED bulbs, the introduction of electric bikes, phasing out motorcycles that run on petrol and illu-minating street lights only at 50 per cent capacity were also recommended under the plan. –Agencies
