Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said the hotel and restaurant industry is crumbling which can be revived through the government’s intervention.

This sector is on the brink due to corona-related restrictions leaving million unemployed and it needs reduced utility bills, tax relief, and a package to survive, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that payments should be deferred while property tax and water bills and bed tax should be waived.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that the fall of hotels and restaurants has also damaged forty-six other linked sectors.

He said that owners of thousands of wedding halls, hotels, and restaurants are unable to pay rent, bills, and salaries due to closure while all other sectors including offices, industries, and assemblies are working.

There are almost three thousand A class restaurants in Karachi, fifteen hundred wedding halls, many marquees, and hundreds of hotels helping millions to bring food to the table leaving almost fifty thousand daily wagers, photographers, video makers, and event planners, etc. jobless, he informed.

The business leaders said that hotels, restaurants and wedding halls located across the country should be given interest-free loans and should be allowed to operate under the policy of smart lockdown.

He said that those working and attending functions there should be linked to vaccination and provided facilities so that this sector can be revived which will help millions of people and the government will fetch handsome revenue.