LAHORE/KARACHI: The inter-city and intra-city public transport and 26 industries across Punjab will reopen from Monday (today).
Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat has directed officials concerned to prepare SOPs for the Jumatul Wida and Eid-ul-Fitr congregational prayers in the province.
The directions came during a meeting chaired by Raja Basharat to review the situation emerging in the province due to the coronavirus. The meeting was also attended by Minister for Industries Mian Aslam Iqbal, Chief Secretary Jawad Rafiq and IG police.
The chief secretary informed the meeting that security should be provided during the Friday and Eid prayers, adding that violation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) would not be tolerated at any cost, reports Geo News.
The chief secretary further instructed officials to ensure that all SOPs were followed in the markets with the help of traders.
“In case of non-compliance of SOPs, the entire market should be sealed,” he said. He said the markets were only allowed to conduct business four days a week, whereas, they would remain close for the remaining three days.
Shopping malls across the Punjab will re-open from tomorrow (Monday) after the provincial government gave the go-ahead to resume operations.
Information Minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan, on Saturday, had said the overall situation across the province was satisfactory after the government allowed people to go on about their daily businesses while observing the SOPs.
The minister had said that the decision to either ease or ramp up lockdown restrictions would be taken keeping in view the public's response during the coronavirus pandemic.
The information minister had added that people could carry out daily activities while making sure they are following the SOPs put in place by the government.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Transporters Association Sunday announced that the standard operating procedures (SOPs) given to them by the provincial government were not practicable and feasible to run buses on roads.
The SOPs issued by the government cannot be implemented to operate the buses, said Punjab Transporters Association leaders while addressing a press conference in Lahore.
The office-bearers of the transporters association said buses could not be operated by carrying 50 percent passengers as per SOPs, as it would bring them huge losses.
They said the government was not providing the SOPs in the written form. They demanded cut in toll tax and suspension of token tax for one year.
They said the government had allowed the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to increase fares but on the other hand, the transporters were asked to cut the fares by 20 percent ahead of Eidul Fitr.
“We had done that but after that we were asked to accommodate one passenger on two seats. This is not acceptable to us, as we cannot bear this huge loss,” they said.
Asmatullah Niazi, Chairman Public Transport Association, said buses would not be operated on Monday (today) until the government issued new SOPs. “We are in contact with all transport organisations. No bus will be run/come on road,” he added.
It is pertinent to mention that on Friday, Chief Minister Usman Buzdar had given go-ahead for resumption of public transport service across the province, which had been suspended since the lockdown was imposed.
Buzdar had directed the relevant authorities to formulate SOPs for the purpose so that the service could be resumed safely amid the coronavirus pandemic. He said the restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the virus were being eased to provide relief to the citizens and people attached with the transport sector.
The businessmen of Karachi announced to keep their businesses open round the clock as they vowed to resist government action against them. They said that they could not be initimidated by the government anti-businessmen action and they are ready to fill jails.
This year has been the worst in terms of Eid sales in Karachi in history, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to hamper business and economic growth. All Karachi Tajir Ittehad Chairman Atiq Mir thinks trading in the city this Eidul Fitr will barely cross the Rs10 billion mark.
Mir told The News that due to the economic slowdown last year, Karachi saw a sale of hardly Rs35 billion. However, he believes that the losses this year will be unprecedented.
He pointed out that some 40 major shopping malls of the city are being kept closed because they are centrally air-conditioned. “The novel coronavirus can spread quickly in centrally air-conditioned places.”
He said that business continues to suffer as 18 famous business points in Karachi, most of which have been closed due to violations of the standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by the Sindh government.
The chairman of the traders’ association said there are hardly eight days left in Eid and they do not hope for any major breakthrough in the situation.
“We can’t expect to see any major buying now,” said Mir, explaining that the purchasing power of the people has plummeted. "90% of the purchasing these days is of baby garments,” he said, adding that people are only buying clothes for the children in their families.
“Apart from the children, generally, no elder in the family has gotten clothes stitched or purchased them readymade. Just because of the happiness of their children, limited families are purchasing clothes, as they don’t have any savings left due to the two-month lockdown.”
He demanded that the government increase the hours of trading after Iftar. “There’s less time left in Eid,” he said, adding that business hours allowed by the government from 6am to 4pm are a bit unreasonable and causing a rush of buyers.
“During the day, people feel suffocated in the market,” Mir pointed out. “If the hours are increased, shoppers will not throng the markets in large numbers.”
Meanwhile, Cloth Merchant Association President Ahmed Chinoy told The Newsthat under normal circumstances, they were expecting an estimated trade of Rs5 billion before Eid. However, due to the lockdown, he expects trade of less than Rs1 billion, which is unprecedentedly low for Ramadan shopping.
Meanwhile, Sindh Transport Minister Awais Shah said the province would permit resumption of public transport services after Eid-ul-Fir.
The development comes a day after Shah refused to resume transportation services, citing the rising number of coronavirus patients in the country and a "critical situation" in the province as cases, deaths, and recoveries continued to increase simultaneously.
Shah, speaking to Geo News, said: "[Sindh] has started preparations to reopen public transport under the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)."
Talking about providing relief to the transporters, since public transport had been shut due to the lockdown, he said a four-point summary had been drafted for them.
"The summary has been sent to [Sindh] Chief Minister [Murad Ali Shah] and a final decision on the matter will be made in a meeting on Monday," Shah said.
Meanwhile, Balochistan government spokesperson Liaquat Shahwani said the provincial government had not yet decided on resuming the transport services.
Shahwani said Chief Minister Jam Kamal would review the situation across various districts and the province overall, before making any decision. A day earlier, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab had deiced to resume transport services.
The announcements came after Prime Minister Imran Khan had requested the provincial authorities to open public transport.
The KP government has subjected the reopening of transport beginning Monday to the condition that the SOPs on prevention from the deadly coronavirus would be followed by all those using transport as well as operators.
The KP chief minister's information adviser, Ajmal Khan Wazir, said the SOPs that need to be heeded would be set up by the commissioners in collaboration with the regional transport authority and transporters and that fares would be revised on basis of new oil prices.
