LAHORE: Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has said the Punjab government has finalised the standard operating procedures to allow various industries to do business in a phased manner in the province, warning the industrialists that units violating the SOPs will be closed.

The chief minister was speaking to a delegation of industrialists and representatives of traders’ community headed by the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) chief Mr Gohar Ijaz at his (CM’s) office here on Sunday.

The chief minister assured the industrialists and traders that their problems would be resolved at the earliest and added that the government would create more ease of doing business for them.

He hoped the common man would get livelihood with the running of businesses and industry as currently the people were facing severe difficulties owing to coronavirus pandemic.

Besides allowing the timber and construction sectors to operate, he said, recommendations would also be sent to federal government to open other related industries.

With the consultation of federal government, he said, industry feeding the export sector would also be opened, he added.

He said permission to do business was also being granted to powerlooms as well as industries that had their own labour colonies.

Mr Ijaz said that Mr Buzdar had proved himself as “Wasim Akram Plus” and acknowledged the steps taken by the chief minister for resolving the problems of industrialists and traders.

LORD ELTON: British House of Lords Member Lord Elton has paid rich tributes to the chief minister for allocating two per cent quota in higher education for minorities, opening avenues of progress for the communities.

Lord Elton is chairman of Pakistani minorities All Party Parliamentary Group.

In a letter to Mr Buzdar, Lord Elton appreciated the decision and added that thousands of minority youths would be benefitted by it in Punjab as doors of higher education would open for them in renowned colleges and universities, helping them to emerge as new middle class in Pakistan.

“A glorious image of Pakistan has emerged with this decision,” he added.

PETROLEUM PRICES: After the cut announced by the government in the petroleum prices, the chief minister said its benefit should trickle down to common people.

He stressed that comprehensive planning should be undertaken to provide direct benefit of the decrease in the petroleum prices to the people of the province.

He directed that steps should be taken to lower the prices of essential items in proportion to the decrease in petroleum prices.

WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY: The chief minister paid rich tributes to the media persons on the World Press Freedom Day.

He stated that he saluted those journalists who laid their lives for press freedom and added that the media had played an unforgettable role in raising awareness in society.

“Promotion of democracy is linked with freedom of the media,” he said.

PDMA: The chief minister also visited the Punjab Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) head office and saw the control room monitoring system.

He observed condition of different cities live on the PDMA dashboard.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2020