The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry(LCCI) has urged the government to take serious notice of law and order situation in Karachi and immediately initiate steps to arrest the fast surging crime graph. In a statement issued here on Tuesday, the LCCI President, Farooq Iftikhar, Senior Vice President, Irfan Iqbal Sheikh, Vice President, Mian Abuzar Shad and LCCI Executive Committee said that economic conditions would not improve unless law and order in Karachi in particular and upcountry in general was seriously tackled.
“The LCCI understands that law and order is a major cause of decline in local and foreign investment and if the government fails to respond to private sector’s call, the economy will continue to slide ultimately resulting in closure of industry and trade,” said the statement.
The LCCI office-bearers said that Karachi killings were a matter of grave concern for the business community as it was the most important business hub of the country that generated huge revenue with sizeable share in the GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The government must re-set its priorities as far as the trade and industry was concerned. “There is an acute shortage of electricity and gas, skilled manpower is in short supply, input costs are very high and Pakistan is fast attaining the status of a trading hub instead of a manufacturing country,” according to the statement. If the law and order situation was under control and energy was made available to the industry round-the-clock, the local investors would get encouragement, while foreign investors would also be ready to initiate joint ventures with their Pakistani counterparts, thus creating more jobs for the unemployed youth. The LCCI President said that the LCCI had been advocating for the formation of Businessmen Police Liaison Committee and hoped that action would be taken by the Punjab Chief Minister (CM), Mian Shahbaz Sharif at the earliest.
He said that provision of security to the businessmen in particular and citizens in general was the government’s responsibility and the government should try harder to fulfill its duty, adding that it not only sent a negative signal to foreign investors but also caused brain drain within the country. The LCCI office-bearers were of the view that the government should listen to the business community’s point of view for increasing industrial productivity.
