KOHAT: The Kohat Chamber of Commerce and Industry has demanded of the government to ease business restrictions during Ramazan as closure of markets on Saturdays and Sundays and forcing traders to down their shutters at 6pm on other days of the week had rendered trade activities to a standstill.

It warned that more people would die of hunger than of Covid-19 as small-time traders and vendors were finding it hard to feed their families. Under these circumstances, businessmen won’t be able to even pay rents of their shops and taxes to the authorities.

Speaking at a meeting here on Monday, KCCI office-bearers, including Asad Javed, Rasheed Paracha, Syed Faiq Shah, Mohammad Junaid and others, termed the restrictions on businesses as detrimental for small traders.

They appealed to the government to devise an effective strategy which not only helped control Covid-19 spread, but also did not affect the businesses.

The KCCI office-bearers demanded that the people be allowed to work at their optimum during Ramazan.

They said that confining the businessmen to restricted timings throughout the week and then closing the bazaars for two days would render them bankrupt, which would lead to large-scale unemployment.

In a separate development, an employee at a grocery shop in Mohallah Pir Abdullah Shah of the city was killed by a man for delay in packing edibles on Monday.

SHO cantonment Amjid Hussain said the police had arrested the suspected killer, Zeeshan Ahmed, belonging to Behzadi Chakar Kot area.

He said after registration of the case the accused had been handed over to the investigation team.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2021