Monitoring Desk: Actor turned restaurateur Nauman Masood has requested Prime Minister Imran Khan to review unplanned lockdowns that are ruining restaurant businesses.
In his recorded video message to explain the miseries of the restaurant industry in Pakistan due to the unplanned imposition of lockdowns in the country, Nauman Masood highlighted miseries faced by restaurant businesses.
According to an article written by Fraaz Mahmud Kasuri and published in Hospitality Plus, Nauman said that restaurant he had been serving the television industry for the last 30 years, and for the last one year, he was running a restaurant in Islamabad while giving his maximum to the field of hospitality.
He very openly addressed Prime Minister Imran, NCOC, and other relevant departments that Covid-19 had caused irreparable losses to the restaurant industry in Pakistan. He added that the jobs of millions of people associated with this industry were at stake as every other day a restaurant owner was seen shutting down the business due to financial issues.
He further said that the government had closed the restaurants for weekends while on weekdays there is a time restriction of 10 pm that is a killing element for the restaurants.
Dining out is a major recreational activity in Pakistan and the majority of the people take their time out for gathering on weekends, he said adding that unplanned restrictions not only cause business losses but also pose serious threats of Covid-19 spread.
He further said that “at restaurants, it is ensured that everybody is vaccinated and we make sure that guests are sitting at a distance.”
He appealed to the government to allow the restaurants to remain open on weekends and let them serve the people till 1 am on weekdays.
He also told the government, “Keep a check on us and punish us if we are not complying with the Covid-19 SOPs but please let us live.”
Every time when a restaurant is closed, it is not about one restaurant rather about all those families who are associated with that restaurant somehow, he said while representing all the restaurant associations in Pakistan and added that “give us a chance and we shall not disappoint you as we love our country from the core of our heart.”
