Marriage hall owners seek relief

HARIPUR: The owners of different marquees in Haripur on Saturday demanded the government to allow resumption of their business or pay them back the amount of taxes they have paid to government during the last two years.

Najam Awan, representative of all the marriage hall owners of Haripur, and others told the journalists that due the three-month closure of the marriage hall, the owners have become insolvent completely and were unable to continue paying utility bills and salaries of staff anymore. He said that despite cooperation with the government, the marquee owners were harassed by administration by forced closure and imposition of fines without prior notices. He pointed out that the government had permitted the traders to open their business under SOPs. “Why only marquees are considered to be the only source of communication of coronavirus,” he said, adding that hundreds of daily wage workers were being paid by the owners who had been paying heavy rents and utility bills without any relief from the government for the last three months.