No business on Saturdays, Sundays: Many markets remain open despite ban

LAHORE: Traders of a number of city markets on Sunday opened their shops despite a ban on opening markets on Saturdays and Sundays while the district administration remained busy doing ‘cosmetic’ checking of the provincial metropolis markets.

During a visit to various city localities, The News found that on Maulana Shaukat Ali Road all furniture shops opposite Jinnah Hospital and furniture market on the road leading to Johar Town through BOR Society were open and full of customers. Similarly, majority of car showrooms on the road were operating with their shutters down.

In Faisal Town, a number of tyre shops, service stations and electronics shops were found open while in Ichra and Gulberg many shops were also found open.

Similarly, a number of paint shops and other shops were found open on PIA Road as well as on College Road, Model Town Link Road and Peco Road. Many shops were also found open in Ichra and Mozang bazaars, Samanabad, Multan Road and Main Boulevards of Gulshan-e-Ravi and Sabzazar. Many garments shops were also found open in Karim Block Market.

A trader of a furniture market opposite Jinnah Hospital said that the traders had already faced huge losses and that was why they were opening their shops in this market on Sunday. Answering a question about the visit of any official of the district administration, he smiled and said they ‘come and go ‘.

The News tried to call new Deputy Commissioner Omer Sher but he didn’t attend the call. A text and a voice message on WhatsApp were also sent to the DC on the issue but he didn’t reply.

On the other hand, a spokesperson of the district administration claimed that the district administration’s teams remained busy to enforce Corona SOPs. He said Additional Deputy Commissioner general Shahid Abbas visited MM Alam Road and sealed Qawwali Restaurant and Tea Gossip for violation of Corona SOPs.

Assistant Commissioner City Faizan Ahmed inspected Total Petrol Station in Gulshan Ravi, PSO Ravi Road and My Petroleum on Corporation Road and fined Rs 20,000 for not wearing masks. He checked vaccination certificates of the staff. Assistant Commissioner Tahneet Bukhari inspected several petrol pumps in Wagah Zone and Attock Petroleum was fined Rs 5,000. Assistant Commissioner City Faizan Ahmed also visited LPG shops and sealed many shops over SOPs violation.

Meanwhile, the DC paid a surprise visit to petrol pumps in Firdous Market and checked the vaccination certificates of those who came for petrol at petrol pumps as well as vaccination certificates of petrol pump staff.

He instructed the petrol pump staff not to supply petrol to those who were without vaccination certificates. The DC directed the citizens to ensure use of masks. He instructed to ensure implementation of Corona SOPs. He appealed to the citizens to ensure social distancing and sanitize hands besides using face masks.