Govt urged to revise SOPs for marriage halls

Islamabad : The government should revise the new SOPs by taking Marquees Association Islamabad on board to save them from bankruptcy, said Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) on Wednesday urged .

ICCI President Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that the marriage halls and marquees were allowed to reopen last month after remaining closed for about six months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which provided them a decent opportunity to restore their business activities.

However, the government has issued new SOPs for these businesses that would badly affect their business activities.

He said this while talking to a delegation of Marquees Association Islamabad that visited ICCI led by Salman Ashraf President and Ashraf Shehbaz Vice President to highlight the issues being faced due to new SOPs.

He said that during the lockdown, the owners of marriage halls and marquees paid millions of rupees in rent and salaries of the employees from their own pockets, which caused them great financial loss. This was done to save the workers from unemployment and poverty.

However, he said that the new SOPs have created a lot of concerns in the business community of this sector. He therefore appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar to take the Marquees Association Islamabad into confidence for the strict enforcement of revised SOPs with the aim to save these businesses from permanent closure.