KARACHI: Traders from the country’s business hub will be meeting Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah on Saturday to pursue the government to allow them to open their shops during coronavirus lockdown, ARY NEWS reported.
Confirming the meeting, the president of All Karachi Tajir Ittehad said that the government has called a meeting to listen to their grievances as their deadline to the government to allow business activities in the city expired today.
“Commissioner Karachi has asked us to reach CM House on Saturday afternoon to meet Murad Ali Shah,” he said. We will put forward our demand of allowing businesses to operate in the city for a short span of time in a day, he said.
Yesterday, trade organisations put forwarded two demands before the Sindh government including allowing them to operate their shops for few hours in the city as they suffer from losses due to coronavirus lockdown.
A meeting of the traders and the Sindh government representatives was held today at Sindh Secretariat with the latter represented by Education Minister Saeed Ghani, Commisisoner Karachi Iftikhar Shallwani and AIG Karachi Ghulam Nabi Memon.
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Other than asking to reopen shops for few hours in a day, the traders also demanded the provincial government to allow them to sale their products using online platforms.
Saeed Ghani who was leading the talks from the government side assured the traders of looking into their matters and said that a final decision would be made by Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah tomorrow during a meeting between the two sides.
The traders during the meeting said that there should be a SOP to operate shops for four to six hours. “We know the gravity of the situation, however, we are also in trouble after losing most of our cash due to ongoing closure,” they said and demanded the government to waive off tax if it was not willing to open the shops.
