Marriage halls association demands permission for reopening business

RAWALPINDI: The Marriage Halls and Caterer Associations have demanded permission from the government for reopening their business from 1st June which was closed due to the COVID-19 lockdown across the country.

Chairman of the Caterers Association Mukhtar Abbas, 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 informed that the Islamabad Caterers Association is a representative organization of more than 100 marriage halls and marquees of the federal capital, which provide jobs to thousands of people.

Mukhtar Abbas said that the marquees and marriage halls employ a large number of permanent as well as the daily wagers; however,  the on-going closure is forcing the owners of marquees to disengage their services as they do not have to pay them from their own pocket.

He demanded that the government should give them conditional consent so that at least they can meet their expenses.

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.

They said that in case the government does not allow the opening of marriage halls, then it should return back one year’s tax to the hall owners and provide funds for the salaries of the staff working in the marriage halls as 4.2 million people were suffering due to the closure of marriage halls.

The association demanded that the gas and electricity bills should be waived off for the period they had remained closed as they had no source of earning.