Local traders here rejected the government's decision that shop will remain closed on Friday, Saturday and Sundays except the already identified essential ones.

"We are not ready to accept provincial government's decision regarding closing shops for three days a week," Mujeeb-ur-Rehman president Tajir Itehad Peshawar cantonment told this reporter here on Sunday.

The traders' leader said that federal government had allowed the shops to remain open for five days till 5pm but the provincial government allowed them to operate for four days till 4pm. He said traders were ready to extend full cooperation and follow the SOPs however they would keep shops open on Friday also till 5pm.

Similarly, Markazi Tanzeem-e-Tajiran provincial president Malik Meher Ilahi said that traders had opened shops in some areas but police asked them to follow the government decision. "We will open our shops from Monday, May 11," he said. He suggested that government should adopt similar policy in all provinces to keep business open for five days, till 5pm so that the traders could earn livelihood for their families. He said Eid-ul-Fitr was near and citizens were in need to buy essential items. "Traders have already suffered badly due to militancy and now the corona virus played havoc with business activities but government is not ready to announce financial relief package for our community," he lamented. He said provincial government had assured the traders' bodies to support the shopkeepers but it did not keep its commitment so far.