Mustafa Kamal demands impartiality in lockdown orders for businesses

Former Karachi mayor has said that when everything from clothes to cosmetics and electronic items are being sold at all the superstores during the COVID-19 lockdown, what is wrong with allowing small traders and shopkeepers to resume their business activities.

Syed Mustafa Kamal, chief of the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), met with a traders’ delegation at the party’s office on Saturday. Led by Karachi Sindh Tajir Ittehad Chairman Sheikh Habib, the delegation informed the ex-mayor about the problems they have been facing because of the lockdown.

Kamal said the government should either impose the lockdown on all businesses or none of them. “In particular, small cloth and garment traders should be allowed to do business as they borrow money and wait all year for the Eid season so their debts can be repaid.”

He reiterated the full support of his party to the business community, saying that the entire country is in a state of an inevitable lockdown but the government needs to allow the reopening of businesses in a fair manner.

He said that selective permission has caused great unrest in all other business circles. The already devastated economy is now frozen, he added. “Over 10 million people have become unemployed and millions of others have fallen into hunger and poverty,” he lamented.

“But the central and provincial governments are wasting time by trying to pull each other down with their unending blame game instead of focusing on the real issues.”

The PSP chief said that all the nations around the world have united, they are on the same page to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, but the politics in Pakistan continue as before the viral outbreak.

The traders’ delegation included Tahir Zaman, Mohammad Mohsin, Jamil Akhtar, and Wali Khan. PSP President Anis Kaimkhani, National Council Member Dilawar Khan and Business Forum President Qamar Akhtar Naqvi also attended the meeting.