Islamabad
The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has started distribution of free food items among Covid-19 affected poor people from its Corona Relief Camp.
The relief package is comprised of flour, rice, lentils and other food items. For this purpose, a ceremony was held at ICCI with Mirza Shahzad Akbar Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior as the chief guest.
Muhammad Aamir Zulfiqar Khan Inspector General Police Islamabad and Hamza Shafqaat Deputy Commissioner Islamabad were also present at this occasion.
Speaking at the occasion, Mirza Shehzad Akbar, SAPM on Accountability and Interior said that saving people from coronavirus and protecting businesses from further losses was the key part of government’s strategy.
He said that government was working on SOPs to open the construction industry and its allied businesses and stressed that business community should fully abide by these SOPs to save their own lives and lives of their workers. He said that government was considering to address the issues of importers, hotel industry and other affected businesses.
He said that government was also mulling over providing relief in rents and utility bills to business community. He said that Covid-19 was a life changing pandemic and we all have to take extra precautionary measures to control its spread. Shehzad Akbar lauded the initiative of ICCI for distributing free food items among the poor families. He said that business community has always demonstrated great spirit of generosity in very crisis and cooperated with government in mitigating the difficulties of affected people.
He hoped that ICCI would continue to provide free food items to poor people to complement the efforts of government for protection of these people.
Muhammad Amir Zulfiqar Khan, IG Islamabad said that taking care of poor people in these testing times was the responsibility of us all. He assured that Islamabad Police would fully cooperate with ICCI in distributing ration among poor families in a disciplined manner.
He said that Islamabad Police has cooperated in distributing ration among 8000 persons and would continue to play its role in such efforts. He also thanked D.Watson and Shaheen Chemists for providing protective equipment to Islamabad Police including masks, sanitizers, gloves etc.
In his welcome address, Muhammad Ahmed Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that business community always played frontline role in every crisis and would also play this role to reduce the difficulties of poor people due to lockdown caused by Covid-19.
He said that ICCI in collaboration with ICT Administration and Islamabad Police would distribute ration at the doorsteps of poor families in Islamabad. He said that initially, ICCI Corona Relief Camp would provide free food items to 1000 families while later on more families would be provided ration so that poor people may not face shortage of food items.—INP
