Rawalpindi:A core committee meeting of the Rawalpindi Restaurant, Caterer, Sweet & Baker Association demanded extension of dining hours from 10 p.m. to 12 at night and warned of a province-wide protest if the demand is not accepted.
The meeting was chaired by Muhammad Farooq Chaudhry, President of the Association, with Mumtaz Ahmad Chairman, and Chaudhry Muhammad Naeem, Patron-in-Chief, attending as special guests. The meeting was also attended by group leader Faheem Ashraf, Zahid Mehmood, Chaudhry Imtiaz, Adnan Mehmood, Hashim Ijaz Butt, Chaudhry Zafar, Huzaifa Anser, Sardar Mehmood Hussain, Sheikh Munir, Naveed Abbasi, Tariq Khan, Sardar Ijaz Wilayat, Shehzad Khan, Arshad Farooq, Haji Abdul Waheed, Saleem Sher Zaman, Usman, Raja Usman, Raja Ghazr Iqbal, Ali Muhammad Nawaz, Attaullah Qureshi, Chaudhry Mezban, Muzammil Ashfaq, Muhammad Iqbal Khan, Danish Zafar, and others.
Participants expressed concern that restricted dining hours are severely damaging businesses, putting millions of jobs at risk and forcing owners to downsize operations. The association announced that no employee will be laid off and urged the government to immediately review the policy. It was warned that if demands are not met, a protest will be launched next week, however, in case of foreign delegations visits, the protest will be postponed until their departure, after which a large-scale protest will be held across Punjab. A press conference will be held two days before the protest to announce the future course of action to the media.
