Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) along with Hamza Shafqaat, Deputy Commissioner Islamabad visited various markets of the federal capital including G-10, G-11 and F-10 Marakaz to ensure enforcement and implementation of Covid-19 pandemic SOPs. Rana Muhammad Waqas Anwar Additional Deputy Commissioner (General), Babar Sahib Din Additional Deputy Commissioner East, Mehreen Baloch Assistant Commissioner, Khalid Chaudhry Convener ICCI Traders Committee, Raja Abdul Majeed Convener ICCI Administration Committee, Presidents of respective markets and police officials also accompanied them during these visits. It was for the first time in the history of Islamabad that President ICCI along with Deputy Commissioner ICT and their teams conducted joint visits to various markets for enforcement of coronavirus SOPs. They inspected meat shops, bakeries, grocery stores, food outlets, clothing shops and various retail shops in markets to ensure that traders and customers were following SOPs.
Speaking at the occasion, Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said he was happy to note that most of the traders and customers were following SOPs and the overall situation was much improved in the city. He hoped that with such strict implementation of SOPs in markets, the cases of Covid-19 pandemic would come down in the coming days. He said the purpose of this joint visit was to fully endorse and support the efforts of ICT Administration for compliance of SOPs in markets. He said that ICCI has set a good example of close cooperation with local administration to control the coronavirus and urged that trade bodies and business communities in other major cities should emulate them and cooperate with administrations to control the spread of this deadly virus. He said it was a moral obligation of the trading community to make sure that people were wearing masks in markets in order to make the commercial centres and cities safe places from Covid-19. He said that such joint visits would also be made to other markets in the entire capital to make sure that SOPs were followed in markets. Therefore, he urged that as the business community was extending full cooperation to the Administrations in enforcement of SOPs, the government should enhance the business hours, especially during the last week of Ramadan for Eid shopping as the businesses have already suffered great losses due to lockdowns and restrictions of timings and ample time for business activities would enable them to recover some losses.
Hamza Shafqaat, Deputy Commissioner Islamabad said that today a new precedent was set in the federal capital in cooperation with President ICCI for the enforcement of SOPs. He thanked Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan and the trading community for joining hands with the ICT Administration in efforts to control the Covid-19 pandemic. He said that the ICT Administration was already overloaded with many responsibilities due to which spending more resources on the enforcement of coronavirus was difficult for it. Therefore, the cooperation of ICCI and the trading community was very helpful in enforcement efforts. He said that during joint visits, more awareness about SOPs was created in the general public, warnings were issued, some shopkeepers were fined while few arrests were also made for violations. He said that a new model was presented in the federal capital for the rest of the country that the business community and administration in every city should jointly work for enforcement of SOPs. He said that the purpose of such visits was to control the spread of virus and not to create any kind of harassment or close businesses. He said that the ICT Administration in cooperation with ICCI and market associations would conduct such visits on a daily basis to minimize the Covid-19 cases in the federal capital and make it a safe city.