Shopping malls reopen in Islamabad after SC judgement

ISLAMABAD: Following the orders of the Supreme Court, shopping malls in Islamabad have been opened, ARY News reported on Monday.

“All markets, shopping malls will remain open whole week”, the deputy commissioner Islamabad said in his statement.

In addition, barber shops and the beauty parlors have been also allowed to resume their operation.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had ordered the reopening of shopping malls across the country, which were shut down during the lockdown imposed to curb the coronavirus pandemic.

During the hearing today, Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed remarked that if the shops are shut down then shopkeepers will ‘die of hunger rather than the coronavirus’.

“You don’t want to purchase clothes but others want to do so,” the country’s top adjudicator remarked while pointing to officials appearing before the court in the case. He added there are a lot of families that manage to wear new clothes only on the occasion of Eid.

The apex court directed Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani to allow all the markets in the port city to resume operations and restrained the city administration from sealing shops and business centres.

The court further instructed the commissioner to open the markets that had been sealed over the violation of the government-prescribed standard operating procedures (SOPs).