KARACHI: Wedding hall owners in Sindh announced opening the wedding halls themselves from Monday as they protest against the ban on their operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The president of All Karachi Marriage Halls Association (AKMHA) Rana Raees expressed outrage over the gesture of defiance towards the wedding hall businesses by the provincial government.
Rana Raees said that since the imposition of the lockdown, the wedding halls had been closed in the country. However, he pointed out that the government later allowed many other businesses to operate under standard operating procedures (SOPs) but even then the wedding halls were not allowed to be opened.
He remarked that due to the closure of the wedding halls, it was not only the owners and employees that were facing misery but also the related businesses such as caterers and florists had been greatly suffering.
Employees at various wedding halls in the city have been laid off and have no other source of income, Raees said. “They employees are at a point where they’ve nothing to feed their children,” he stated.
He said the government should allow the wedding halls to operate under the SOPs. Meanwhile, another representative Qais Mansoor Shaikh announced that the marriage halls will be reopened from Monday at any cost.
Earlier in the day, the Sindh government has decided against the opening of marriage halls and cinemas in the province even as COVID-19 cases witness a decline in the province.
The decision was taken in the COVID Task Force meeting headed by Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah. The decision on opening marriage halls and swimming pools will be taken on June 28. It has also been decided to deliberate upon reopening shrines, amusement parks and indoor gyms from June 28.
The government, however, announced to reopen primary schools from June 21 including other measures aimed at easing COVID restrictions besides closing down vaccination centres in the province on Sunday owing to vaccine scarcity.
