By Anzal Amin
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) on Saturday urged the government to extend the business timings in markets from current 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm and for food outlets and restaurants up to 12 midnight so that business activities could flourish smoothly that would help in reviving the overall economy.
Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that with the increase in vaccination of people, the average positivity rate of Covid-19 pandemic has now come down to 5.9% reflecting an improvement. Therefore, it was important that the timings for businesses should be enhanced to give ample time to customers for shopping and avoid overcrowding in commercial areas, he added. He said that shopping malls across Pakistan were ensuring strict implementation of SOPs by adopting the policy of no mask no entry and he he urged for allowing to operate as per normal working hours for 7 days a week.
He said that cinemas worldwide were opened by maintaining social distancing between seats and also urged the government to open them in Pakistan with 60-70 percent capacity of viewers as these businesses were closed for more than a year and were now on the verge of bankruptcy.
He further said that Pakistan has already suffered an estimated economic loss of Rs.2.5 trillion in 2020 and was anticipated to suffer additional loss of over Rs.1 trillion this year due to restrictions on businesses while the livelihoods of over 18 million workers have been badly affected.
