Wedding hall owners around the country announced opening the wedding halls themselves on August 2 as they gathered outside the Karachi Press Club on Monday to protest against the ban on their operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic since last three months.
President of the Wedding Hall Owners’ Association Rana Raees told the media that since the imposition of the lockdown, the wedding halls had been closed in the country. However, he pointed out that the government later allowed many other businesses to operate under standard operating procedures (SOPs) but even then the wedding halls were not allowed to be opened.
Talking to The News, he said that after their protest, they were called at the Commissioner Office and after keeping them waiting for two hours, only the South deputy commissioner showed up who gave them time for Tuesday (today).
Despite their repeated demands, he said, the wedding hall owners had not been permitted to open their halls. Raees lamented that the wedding halls owners were going bankrupt due to the continuous closure of their business. He demanded that the government allow them to operate under SOPs.
He remarked that due to the closure of the wedding halls, it was not only the owners and employees that were facing misery but also the related businesses such as caterers and florists had been greatly suffering.
Employees at various wedding halls in the city have been laid off and have no other source of income, Raees said. “They [employees] are at a point where they’ve nothing to feed their children,” he stated, adding that all the wedding hall owners across the country were not protesting for their rights.
He said the government should allow the wedding halls to operate under the SOPs and if any wedding hall owner failed to follow the SOPs, the government or the district administration must take action against them.
All the associations of wedding halls across the country are in coordination, Raees said. “If we aren’t allowed to operate, our protest will be countrywide,” he warned, adding that they could also march towards the Chief Minister house.