All industrial zones closed except food, and pharmaceutical companies

Sindh government has allowed pharmaceuticals and ready-to-eat companies to continue their operations during the 15-day lockdown, while other industrial units have been ordered to shut down.
Industry representatives said manufacturers besides pharmaceuticals and foodstuffs have been obeying orders from the Ministry of Interior not to hire employees and workers despite industrial production is zero.

Sultan Chawla, president of the Site Association of Industry, said that the factory owners of 4,000 units are working to ensure food and other commodities supply to their 100,000 daily wage workers, which is the cause of the industrial shutdown in the city. They are at risk of losing income.

Sulaiman Chawla said, "In non-productive days, we will not remove any single employee from the job and efforts are being made to provide salaries to the employees before 1st April.

In this regard, the President of the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry, Sheikh Omar Rehan, said he could not tell the number of daily wage workers in the industrial area, where he estimated 10 to 1.5 million people worked in 4,000 industrial units. Earn jobs for your family.

"In the current situation, we are not firing an employee or cutting their salaries," he said.

In addition to this, arrangements are being made for providing food to the workers with payment of salaries before 1st April.

"We can't even think of firing an employee working in the 2000s in the industrial area," said Abdullah Abid, president of the FB Area Association of Trade and Industry.

He said that 'many employees belong to Indo-Sindh who have already visited their homes with advance payment of march while in many factories the workers were provided with food items such as flour, rice, pulses, tea, and sugar.

On the other hand, Naseem Akhtar, president of the North Karachi Association of Trade and Industry, said: "We will assure our employees, staff members, and laborers, that there will be no deduction in salaries at this time of examination.

He added that Rs. 1 lakh is being provided to 24,000 poor persons registered in the Association's Welfare Clinic.

In addition, arrangements are also being made to provide daily wages to employees for the next 15 days.