Traders body gives 3-day deadline for ending lockdown

ISLAMABAD: Traders across the country Sunday gave a three-day deadline to the govt to end the lockdown, allowing resumption of businesses countrywide.

In a statement, President Markazi Tanzeem-e-Tajran Pakistan Muhammad Kashif Chaudhry asked the government to decide on reopening complete business activity in the country within 72 hours.

“In case the government does not take a decision, the traders themselves will end the lockdown and resume business activities,” he said.

Chaudhry said all traders had fallen victim to the politics between the federal and provincial governments.

He said the economic murder of traders and workers in the name of lockdown was not acceptable to them.

He regretted that the federal government had not provided any relief to traders on utility bills or in shape of easy loans and payment of rents. Chaudhry also noted that the government in the past took voluntary cooperation of traders as their weakness. “But any lip-service from the government will not serve the purpose,” he maintained.