Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Monday announced that business community will keep businesses open on December 4, which has been rescheduled to December 15 by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
LCCI President Ijaz A Mumtaz, Senior Vice President Mian Nauman Kabir and Vice President Syed Mahmood Ghaznavi urged the politicians to let the private sector work for the sake of economy and don’t disturb the smooth running of businesses.
They said that the business community had always fulfilled its national obligations by showing commitment towards the economy but an effort is being made to hamper the industrial wheel.
“The business community wanted to keep the industrial wheel on the move for 24 hours as it had always spent its energies in this direction,” they said, adding that Pakistan’s economy needed a growth of more than seven percent for next 8 to 10 years to catch-up with the other regional economies and such calls were bound to disrupt economic activities.
The LCCI office-bearers said that the LCCI was striving to expedite trade and economic activities through interaction with local and foreign businessmen but somehow every now and then the things are pushed back to the wall.
They said that all the issues could be resolved through talks therefore the protesting parties should adopt the same path for the early solution of their issues.
The LCCI office-bearers said that it was beyond their understanding that what compelled the PTI leadership to give call for countrywide shutdown at a time when the government had already shown its willingness to listen to their point of view.
“It would take a long time to recover the loss to the economy caused by such steps,” they added.
They were of the view that the call for strike had also sent a negative signal abroad while causing a severe dent to the government efforts aimed at attracting foreign investment.
