Zubair Qureshi
All Rawalpindi Restaurants Association has demanded of the government to end discriminatory behaviour and acknowledge their right of doing business as protected in the constitution.
While addressing a meeting of the action committee of the association on Friday President of the association Farooq Chaudhry regretted the double standards of the government that on one hand restaurants were stopped from offering indoor dining, on the other hand, National Assembly’s Cafeteria was serving food to the parliamentarians and their guests freely.
Food outlets in twin cities are strictly following the Covid-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as well as all the health guidelines, he said, yet the ongoing restrictions imposed by the National Command & Operation Centre (NCOC) are not only affecting their businesses but also hurting thousands of lives associated with this business.
He said the restaurants were not only following government instructions but also played an instrumental role in making the vaccination drive successful and helping the Punjab government in meeting the vaccination target.
The restaurant association president said that once again the government introduced fresh restrictions and the administration was imposing heavy fines in case of any violation while on the other side there was no restriction on the cantonment board election campaign which was causing increase in the coronavirus cases.
He urged the government and the NCOC to give up this discriminatory behaviour and adopt an even handed approach.
He appealed to the government to help reduce the burden on the restaurant industry which was already suffering for the last 18 months.
