ISLAMABAD: Muhammad Ahmed Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has hailed the positive approach of Hamza Shafqaat, Deputy Commissioner Islamabad and ICT Administration for allowing businesses to remain opened before Eid ul Azha. He said that respecting the demands of business community of the federal capital, the ICT Administration did not impose any lockdown in the federal capital before Eid ul Azha and allowed business activities to continue with SOPs, which was appreciable. He also thanked Muhammad Amir Zulfiqar Khan, IG Islamabad under whose leadership the Islamabad Police cooperated with the traders and maintained social distancing in markets due to which the spread of virus remained under control.

Muhammad Ahmed Waheed said that with the grace of Allah Almighty and great efforts of the ICT Administration under the leadership of Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqat, the Covid-19 pandemic was significantly controlled and number of cases were now on the downward slide. In these circumstances, closing down businesses before Eid was not in the interest of citizens of Islamabad and the economy.

ICCI President said that the government had imposed long lockdown to control the coronavirus, which caused huge losses to businesses and further weakened our economy. However, keeping businesses open before Eid in Islamabad provided traders a good opportunity to recover some of the losses during these days and it also facilitated the citizens to do the shopping for Eid. He also appealed to the citizens to fully comply with the SOPs laid down by the ICT Administration during Eid days and not develop any kind of rush in markets and business centres that would help in controlling the spread of Covid-19 and create enabling conditions for businesses to flourish.

Muhammad Ahmed Waheed said that restaurants, wedding halls and marquees in Islamabad were still closed due to which thousands of workers have lost earnings and poverty and unemployment have increased. Therefore, he appealed to the government to allow all closed businesses to reopen after Eid ul Azha with SOPs so that business activities could be restored and unemployment could be reduced.