PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has said that government does not want to keep business activities closed but in the prevailing emergency situation some difficult decisions are required to be made to protect the lives of people.

He was talking to the representatives of business community here on Tuesday. The chief minister and delegation of businessmen discussed several issues pertaining to Standard Operating Procedures for lockdown, rents of shops, relief package for affected traders.

Talking to the delegation of Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Markazi Tanzeem-i-Tajiran, the chief minister said that all measures of government including lockdown and social distancing were meant to protect the lives of people during the coronavirus pandemic.

He said that government’s measures would not yield the desired results until people belonging to different segments of society including traders did not extend cooperation to it for the purpose.

Mahmood Khan discusses lockdown SOPs with representatives of traders

The delegation comprised Malik Meher Elahi, Ghazanfar Bilour, Adeel Rauf, Ghulam Javed, Haji Amin, Mohammad Afzal, Habibullah Zahid, Ghulam Bilal, Ihtisham Haleem, Sharafat Ali Mubarak and others.

The delegation apprised the chief minister of the issues faced by traders and shopkeepers owing to the lockdown and presented suggestions for opening eateries and bakeries besides shops of furniture, electronics, jewellery, cloths, shoes and showrooms during Ramzan.

“We requested the chief minister to approve a relief package for the businessmen and allow them to open all the shops on rotation basis as people are unable to pay rents, utility bills and wages to workers for a long time,” Meher Elahi, the provincial president of Markazi Tanzeem-i-Tajiran, told Dawn.

He said that the delegation presented its demands in light of WHO’s report about long lasting effects of the pandemic on Pakistan. “We clearly discussed our problems that traders cannot afford keeping their shops closed any longer,” he said.

Meanwhile, according to a statement the Chief Minister told the delegation that government did not want to keep business activities closed but in the prevailing emergency situation some difficult decisions were required to be made to protect the lives of people.

He urged all the segments of society to extend cooperation to government in that difficult time to save lives of people. “We are faced with a difficult situation of saving the people from coronavirus as well as from hunger,” he added.

The chief minister said that he realised the difficulties faced by small traders and shopkeepers owing to lockdown. He said that government was working on resolving the issue of rents of the shops kept closed during the lockdown.

The chief minister informed the delegation that opening of Pak-Afghan border for export was also under-consideration. He said that government was taking necessary steps to give relief to all sectors within the available resources.

He assured the traders that their issues related to federal government would be taken with the relevant authorities on priority basis.

Showing concerns over the rapid increase of coronavirus cases in the province, especially in the provincial capital, the chief minister asked the traders, shopkeepers and people to strictly follow preventive measures.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2020