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Traders oppose shops` closure at 8pm

2023-06-08
LAHORE: Traders have opposed the federal government`s decision of closing markets and shopping centres at 8pm in a bid to save energy.

All-Pakistan Anjuman Tajiran chairman Naeem Mir told a press conference here on Wednesday that the decision to shut businesses at 8pm was taken without consulting the stakeholders that exposed the `mental disability` of the government.

He suggested that instead of implementing the decision through an executive order, the government should bring the matter to the parliament for a thorough discussion by the representatives of the masses.

A special committee of the parliament should be formed to set business hours during summers and winters after hearing the traders, he added.

He demanded that whatever the decision on business timings, it must be implemented across the country and urged the caretaker government in Punjab to refrain from implementing the order in the province; otherwise, he cautioned, the step would lead to clashes between the traders and those assigned the task to implement the decision.

Mir argued that during summers the customers come for shopping in the evening when the mercury comes down and closure of shops early in the evening would disappoint them as well as the shopkeepers.

He asked whether the shopkeepers would be facilitated during day time by supplying the uninterrupted power to compensate for their business loss.

Khadim Hussain, senior vice-president of Ferozepur Road Traders Board, has also rejected the energy saving plan and said that the decision to close the markets at 8pm will affect the business activities and reduce government revenue. He said the government should withdraw the decision otherwise business organisations would protest on the road against it.-Staff Reporter