KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday called a meeting to review suggestions from trade bodies to reopen local industries, businesses and restaurants.

The CM met with a business delegation led by Businessmen Group Chairman Siraj Kassam Teli including representatives from the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Restaurants Association and others.

The traders’ delegation urged CM Murad to end the lockdown immediately so that businesses and industries could resume operations.

The delegation cautioned that if the lockdown is not suspended immediately, businesses, which have had to suspend operations for more than two months, would shut down forever leading to unemployment and poverty.

“Excluding export-oriented industries and industries engaged in the production of essential food items, other local industries and restaurants in which hundreds and thousands of workers are employed, remain closed and the relevant businessmen are finding it impossible to sustain all these employees and are looking forward to close down their businesses forever”, the representatives added.

They also advised the government to deploy the armed forces to patrol at various commercial markets to ensure strict adherence to the Standard Operating Pro­­cedures (SOPs) devised to contain further spread of pandemic.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2020