KOHAT: The Kohat Chamber of Commerce and Industry has appealed to Chief Minister Mahmood Khan to provide some relief in the lockdown timings, rents of government shops, electricity bills and taxes to the small traders while enforcing the standard operating procedures to contain coronavirus.

The chamber’s office-bearers said that with the consultation of business community a strategy be adopted through which the people could remain safe from the disease and earn honest living without facing unemployment.

They feared the restrictions might lead them to bear negative economic consequences for a long time even after the end of Covid-19.

At a meeting on Sunday, KCCI president Asad Javed, Rasheed Paracha, Faiq Shah and others said the traders had accumulated huge stocks for Eid, but due to the lockdown and timing restrictions it would perish and become a burden on them.

Fears big losses if restrictions not eased for Eid

They said the traders were expelling the staff at their shops as they could not pay their salaries.

SASTA BAZAAR: The tehsil municipal administration is taking steps to provide edibles like ghee, sugar, flour, etc at below market rates at sasta bazaar and conducting phase-wise disinfection spray in different bazaars against Covid-19.

A statement issued here on Sunday said the TMA was paying visits to sasta bazaar to check availability of chlorine-mixed water and hand washers at all entry and exit points.

CONDEMNED: The journalist community here has condemned the alleged manhandling of mediapersons and stopping them from coverage of conditions at the KDA teaching hospital on Saturday night.

The mediapersons had gone there to highlight the troubles being faced by patients after midnight.

Kohat Union of Journalists president Farhan Bangash asked district police officer Sohail Khalid to take action against the police official Yasir.

He regretted that the mediapersons were stopped from discharging their duties to highlight the problems being faced by the patients.

EX-CJ’S WIFE DIES: The wife of former chief justice of Peshawar High Court Syed Ibne Ali died after protracted illness here on Sunday.

She was the mother of Dr Zulfiqar Shah. She was laid to rest in Ustarzai Payan in her ancestral graveyard.

A large number of people offered her funeral prayers and gathered at the home of former judge for offering condolences.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2021