Pakistan places malls on notice to close in the midst of economic turmoil

ISLAMABAD Authorities on Wednesday demanded that market and shopping malls to close at 8.30pm in an energy conservation program designed to ease the country's economic woes according to officials. The decision comes amid discussions between officials from the International Monetary Fund.

This week, Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif and minister of energy Ghultam Dastghir said the government had decided to close establishments earlier in line with the new plan to conserve energy that was approved by cabinet. The authorities also directed wedding halls and restaurants to close at 10 p.m.

The government is hoping these measures to help save energy and reduce the cost of imported oil, on which Pakistan pays $3 billion every year. In Pakistan the majority of electric power is produced by imported oil.

So far, there's been a variety of reactions from the representatives of restaurant owners, shopping malls, as well as shop proprietors who are calling on for the federal government to reverse its decision.

Many Pakistanis go shopping and eat at restaurants until midnight.

Business leaders believe that these new measures could be detrimental to their companies, which were hit in the course of the pandemic due to government-imposed lockdowns in order to stop the spread of coronavirus.

From 2021 to now, the coronavirus been responsible for 36,000 deaths from 1.5 million people in Pakistan.

Pakistan has been in discussions with IMF to relax some conditions of the bailout of $6 billion and believes that it will lead to an increase in inflation.

The fund announced the release of its last important tranche $1.1 billion for cash-poor Pakistan during August. Since the time, there has been a standoff in discussions between the two sides.

Pakistan states that last summer's catastrophic floods have caused as much as 40 billion in damage to the economy of the country which makes it challenging for Pakistan's authorities to meet certain IMF's requirements such as increasing the cost of electricity and gasoline, and new taxes.

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