Web Desk (LTN NEWS): The decision by former chief minister Hamza Shehbaz to close business centers, markets, super stores, and shops at 9 p.m. to save electricity and fuel was overturned by the government of Parvez Elahi on Wednesday.
The Punjab government has told people that Chief Minister Parvez Elahi has said that business centers, markets, super stores, and shops will no longer have to close at certain times.
The Punjab Department of Labor and Human Resources sent out the notice. At the same time, they took back the notices they had sent out on June 18, 20, 24, and July 1 and 28. Those notices had set the closing times of shops and businesses until further orders.
Now, business centers can be open on Sundays as well.
The decision was made by the PML-N-led provincial government a day after the Sindh government announced similar cuts to save electricity and fuel.
The decision was made by the Hamza administration because it was in line with what the nine-party coalition government was doing to deal with the lack of power in the country.
Mr. Elahi told the business owners that the government would also fix parking problems to help them out.
In a tweet, the chief minister said, “The PML-N supported the parking mafia, and I know well who supported it and how much it made.”
Mr. Elahi said that he would get rid of the “parking mafia” and use 30% of the money from parking fees to help traders.
He said that the PML-N made a lot of noise about how things would change when the Shehbaz government took over. He said that nothing had changed, but that the Shehbaz government had raised prices a lot and made life hard for traders.
Mr. Elahi also said that Rescue 1122 centers would be set up in markets. To solve the problems of the traders, a group led by minister Mian Aslam Iqbal and trader leader Nasir Salman was put together.
The chief minister said that “Prosperous Traders and Punjab” would be the goal of the Punjab government.
Asad Umer, the head of the PTI, praised CM Parvez Elahi by saying that during his previous time as chief minister, he did a lot more good work than others in Punjab and was praised in Pakistan for it.
He said that the Corona disease and other problems had made things hard for traders in the past few years and that it was the government’s job to fix the traders’ problems.
Nasir Salman, the PTI chairman for traders, said that the government wanted to bring “downtown” and kiosks to the markets like they do in developed countries. He also said that all cities’ markets should be brought up to the same level so that buyers would be more likely to go shopping. He said that the PTI was trying to get rid of poverty by encouraging trade. He promised to solve the traders’ problems as soon as possible.
Former federal minister Shafqat Mahmood, provincial ministers Dr. Yasmin Rashid, Mian Aslam Iqbal, Mian Mahmood ur Rasheed, Mohsin Leghari, and Hanif Patafi, Inspector General of Police Faisal Shahkar, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Muhammad Khan Bhatti, Chairman P&D, ACS (Home), administrative secretaries of departments concerned, and senior officials were all there.
