Owners of marriage halls ask govt to rethink 10pm deadline

The owners of marriage halls/lawns have called for immediately rescinding the orders of the provincial administration requiring marriage halls to close down by 10pm, instead of the current deadline of midnight.

They were addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday afternoon.

Arshad Mir, secretary, information and coordination of the association, said that it was strange that while the government had decided to negotiate with the shopkeepers about the latter’s resentment over the 7pm closure deadline, senior minister Manzoor Wassan had made it clear to the marriage halls association that the decision about the 10pm closure was final. “Why this discrimination?” he said.

He queried as to how it was possible for one to go home after work and get ready for the occasion and reach the venue promptly in light of all the traffic bottlenecks that are an inseparable part of the city scene. 

Mir said that all deputy commissioners in their jurisdiction were calling the marriage hall owners and meting out threats to them in case they did not comply with the new deadline. Besides, he said, the marriage halls’ managements would not be able to control a gathering of 400-500 guests.

He further stated that it was unfair to just punish the halls’ managements if they did not shut down by 10pm. He called on the government to carry on negotiations with the association before forcing any decision.

Mir also called for not just punishing the owners but also holding the person who booked the hall and the bridegroom responsible.

The acting president of the association, Iqbal Inayat, said that there was no bill of parliament laying down any such law. He said a mere whim of the chief minister could not become law.

When a questioner pointed out that such restrictions had worked very well in Lahore, Mir and Inayat replied than Lahore was a compact place as compared to Karachi. 

Moving about in that city, he added, was not such an issue given the relatively lighter traffic and the suburbs being smaller in number and directly connected to Lahore, while Karachi had a much larger number of suburban areas and they were far away, cities in themselves; therefore, it was far more difficult to be prompt in Karachi.