The owner of Islamabad's Marriott Hotel, which was destroyed in Sept. 20 suicide bombing, has assured its employees that none of them will be rendered jobless as he plans to reconstruct the hotel within the next three months at an estimated cost of over half a billion rupees. The assurance given by Sadruddin Hashwani came as a great relief to some 1,000 employees of the hotel who were suddenly faced with the prospect of becoming jobless after the hotel was bombed and closed. “Let me make it very clear that not a single employee would be rendered jobless and all of them will all be getting their salaries during the period of reconstruction of the hotel,” Hashwani said in an interview to the leading English language daily The News. He said one of the employees who died in the blast had five small daughters. From now onwards, he said, they are his daughters and he would take care of them. Hashwani said that all these employees would be actively taking part in the rehabilitation of the hotel. But, he said, there is another possibility that they might be given two months leave with pay. He said he had already started working on the rehabilitation plan. About the cost of rehabilitation, he said although it was too early to give an exact amount, according to initial estimates it would cost Rs600-700 million. He said although he had set a three-month deadline to reconstruct the hotel, his major concern would be to arrange furniture within this short time. Hashwani said that had the fire brigade reached there on time, the hotel might have been saved from complete destruction. Reservation at luxury hotels drop by 50% Reservations at three and five-star hotels in Pakistan have dropped by around 50 percent after Saturday's suicide attack at Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. The hotel business in Karachi has been adversely affected after the attack. “Visitors avoid staying with us because they think they are exposed to danger in the presence of foreigners,” said a hotel manger in Islamabad. However, some hoteliers believed that the business would pick up in the next few days as people would come out of the fear caused by Saturday's tragedy. __
