NKATI leaders urge government to give soft loans

A. Moiz Khan and Nasim Akhtar, patron-in-chief and president respectively of the North Karachi Association of Trade and Industry (NKATI), have urged the government to protect workers' jobs and save them from starvation by providing soft loans to the export-oriented industries.
They said that the domestic industries had been facing the brunt of the lockdown since USA and Europe stated cancelling most of the export orders. NKATI leaders demanded of the government to protect the export-oriented industries from disaster, saying that they did not know how long the lockdown would last.
Hence the export-oriented industries, especially the textile industry, needed the help of the government to ensure their survival, they said. "How will the industrialists pay salaries to their workers as the industries have already been suffering from severe financial hardships?" NKATI leaders asked.
They said that the industrialists had arranged workers salaries for March, but if the lockdown period was extended then it would be very difficult for them to pay salaries to their workers. They urged the government to defer SESSI and EOBI payments for six months and instead the government should pay this contribution amount to the SESSI and the EOBI for the welfare of the workers.