PESHAWAR: Traders here on Saturday, rejected the government decision of closing all market by 6 pm, termed that the move was economic murder, asked to allow business activities till midnight.

In this regard, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of President Traders Alliance and Provincial Chairman National Peace Council Ghulam Bilal Javed here on Saturday, in which there was a strong reaction to the closure of all businesses at 6 pm. Major Arshad, babai Tajran Amin Hussain Babar, Chaudhry Shahid Ghafoor, Ghulam Hussain Chand, Munawar Khurshid, Abdul Haseeb Chughtai Basit Waqar, Ammar Babar, Haji Ehsan,Ahmed ullah Durrani, Asif Ali attended the meeting. All traders demanded withdrawal of the declaration.

The meeting unanimously passed a resolution calling upon the government to allow businesses to remain open from 10:00 am till midnight for 7 days in the month of Ramazan as it was the month of peak season for business activities due to Eid shopping.

They said that closing businesses at 6 pm and keeping the markets closed two days a week will cause irreparable damage to the business community while there will be fewer deaths from coronavirus and more deaths from poverty and hunger.

Ghulam Bilal Javed said that the government has failed to enforce the corona SOPs and is forcibly imposing its order on the business community. This is the last week then all this will get out of the hands of business leaders and the government will be responsible for all this.

Ghulam Bilal said that people are waiting for this month for the whole year.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021