Rejecting Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI’s) shutdown call for Lahore on December 15, local traders’ unions have suggested the PTI leadership to exercise constitutional options for redressing their issues instead of agitating on roads.
Hall Road Traders Association President Babar Mehmood, Urdu Bazar Traders Association President Khalid Pervaiz, Ferozpur Road Industrial Association Patron-in-Chief Adnan Butt, Marble Market Chairman Mehboob Ahmed Sirki and Mall Road Traders Association Chairman Raja Hamid Riaz said that sit-ins in Islamabad have met their logical end and there is no need for protests.
They said that “threats to traders to close their businesses” would serve no purpose but to hamper national economy. Strike calls are airing a bad signal to foreign investors who are willing to invest in Pakistan, they said.
The traders were of the opinion that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government has undertaken many development projects, especially in the energy sector and “after three to four years power load-shedding will totally be eliminated from the country”.
By showing stubbornness on settling electoral reforms issues in the parliament, PTI Chairman Imran Khan is bent on destroying the democratic system, they said, adding that Khan should withdraw his shutdown call and let the present system continue.
