Marriage hall association announces protest on July 13

KARACHI: The Marriage Hall Association has announced a countrywide protest on July 13 to demand the reopening of their business which was closed due to the COVID-19 lockdown across the country.

The announcement came after an emergency video-link meeting of representatives of wedding lawn owners’ bodies from across the country.

Marriage halls association’s President, Salman Ashraf and General Secretary Bakhtawar Butt expressed their concern over the on-going closure of marquees and wedding halls and demanded like other businesses they should also be permitted to work with precautionary steps.

They decided to hold protest demonstrations outside press clubs across the country at the same time to demand to reopen halls.

Islamabad association’s president Rana Raes said marriage hall owners will march towards press clubs in all major cities, where they will hold a protest demonstration.

He regretted that the government has turned a deaf ear to their demands despite being repeatedly approached. He assured that protesters will abide by Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) during their protest.

He said that at present there are at least 20,000 people working in the marquees and marriage halls of Islamabad in addition to a large number of people who give different services i.e. butchers, hall decorators and photographers.

On this occasion, the General Secretary of the association, Bakhtawar Butt said that if the government will permit them to open marquees, the association will take responsibility for the full implementation of the government’s SOPs.

He said that they are ready to arrange functions with scattered setting arrangements, table serving, using clean cutlery and centrifuge gates at the entrances of the halls.