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KARACHI: Businessmen have decided to approach President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in protest against the government`s decision of two weekly holidays, an industry official told Our sources on Monday.
A delegation, comprising leader of the business community will meet the president and prime minister to apprise them about the prevailing concerns among the business community on the decision taken last week, they said.
It may be mentioned here that opposing the decision Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other associations have sent letters of plea to take back the decision.
Vice President SARRC CCI and former president FPCCI Iftikhar Ali Malik said that the businessmen are already discontented with the mindset and performance of public sector institutions and five working days a week proposal would result in further delays for processing the matters of the business community with concerned quarters.
"As a result of this decision the businessmen will not only lose their business, but will be compelled to expel people out from their respective units," he said adding that the additional holiday would increase the industry`s cost of doing business and the financial burden would be around 12 to 28 percent and no industry anywhere in the world is operating at 28 percent margin.
He said that the government should make efforts to increase power generation through every possible source instead of making anti-economy decisions. He said that due to this decision, the present government would miserably fail to achieve any economic targets including gross domestic product and exports.
President KCCI Abdul Haji Majeed told Our sources that a letter has been sent to the prime minister apprising him about the current situation of business in the country.
He said that the government should not consider the ideas and proposals by the bureaucracy and the foreign donors, who mostly prove to be crap and against the interest of the country.
He was of the view that the business community was not consulted regarding the proposal and important stakeholders should be consulted before taking matters to the cabinet.
He said that to generate and ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity, it is important to increase power generation and to curtail transmission and distribution losses instead of announcing two-day holidays, which would severely affect industrial and commercial activities of the country.
He said that industries would suffer serious production losses due to this non-serious attitude and action by the government. We need to evolve a comprehensive plan to improve both energy availability and energy use, based on country`s immense potential, which, apart from oil and natural gas, includes hydropower, coal and renewable energy.
Moreover economists have also warned about rising unemployment in the country after massive layoffs from industries, crippled by the power crisis and law and order situation.
They said that the double-digit inflation over the last two fiscal years has pushed millions of daily-wagers and workers into severe economic crisis and the decision would directly hit the daily wagers.
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