LAHORE-Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry has demanded immediate opening of outdoor dinning under strict compliance of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
The demand was raised at an emergent joint press conference at the LCCI on Wednesday. LCCI President Mian Tariq Misbah, Senior Vice President Nasir Hameed Khan, Vice President Tahir Manzoor Chaudhry, representatives of the hotels & restaurants sector Asad Ullah Khan Niazi, Amir Qureshi, Ahmad Shafiq, Raza Ahmad and M. Adeel also spoke on the occasion and presented their demands.
“Hotels and restaurants are open in other provinces and this sector is being targeted only in Punjab”, they said and demanded to the government to allow resumption of businesses immediately as prolonged lockdown has already caused irreparable loss. They said that 40 per cent restaurants have already been closed during first wave of COVID-19 that left over one million people jobless. “Why government do not take stakeholders on board while taking such decisions”, they questioned and said that sudden closuer of hotels and restaurants would again cause huge loss to this sector while perishable items worth of millions have been destroyed. They said that closure of restaurants has not only put investment of billions of rupees on stake but has also rendered millions of employees jobless and they are facing starvation. This would also jack up the rate of street crimes. They said that dozens of other industries including poultry, fruits & vegetables and grossery stores, are also associated with the hotels and restaurants sector and these would also be affected badly.
“Hundreds of restaurants have been closed, which cost jobs of thousands of daily-wage earners and labourers besides loss to the national exchequer”, they said and added that government has allowed various other businesses but these businesses are kept closed.
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