NCC to decide on reopening marriage halls, tourism, parks etc within few days

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 Federal Minister of Industries and Production, Hammad Azhar. — Geo.tv/Files

ISLAMABAD: Government has started consultations with provinces over reopening marriage halls, tourism, restaurants, parks etc, said Federal Minister of Industries and Production, Hammad Azhar on Tuesday.

The government had prepared the Negative List, in which those businesses were included that were not allowed to operate during the coronavirus lockdown.

In his tweet, the minister pointed out that the Centre has started consultations with provinces on "review and possible revision of sectors (subject to SOPs) on Negative List". 

"Started consultations at NCOC [National Command Operation Center] with provinces on review and possible revision of sectors (subject to SOPs) on Negative List of opening up. These include tourism, restaurants, marriage halls, parks etc," Azhar said.

The industries minister said that the government was also mulling over the timings of the markets and industries.

Azhar said that once the provinces had finalised their recommendations, it would be referred to Prime Minister Imran Khan, who will make the final decision. 

"We have collected the proposals and have asked provinces to finalise SOPs and enforcement methods. The proposals will now be taken to NCC headed by PM to take final decisions in this regard within a few days," he added.

Pakistan has stemmed the spread of the coronavirus to a certain extent and now the country aims at reviving its economic engine to move towards recovery.

So far a total of 280,461 cases have been detected in Pakistan, 2,097 in AJK, 11,777 in Balochistan, 2,198 in GB, 15,095 in Islamabad, 34,253 in Khyber Paktunkhwa, 93,336 in Punjab and 121,705 in Sindh.

Punjab seeks permission to reopen marriage halls, hotels

In the light of declining cases of coronavirus in the province, the Punjab government on Tuesday sent recommendations to the National Command Operation Centre (NCOC) to consider reopening tourist destinations and restaurants with standard operating procedures SOPs and allowing industries to work round the clock.

The provincial government has also recommended the opening of hotels, marriage and meeting halls with the implementation of all SOPs and has requested to revise the timings of all businesses across the province.