Lasbela Chamber of Commerce and Industry demands to revert to 6-day working week

Karachi, December 11, 2013 (PPI-OT): Lasbela Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has demanded the government to restore six-day working week in banks and other government functionaries related to exports. The President LCCI, Ismail Suttar in a statement said that the decision by the establishment to resort to 5-day working week was absolutely against the national interest, he added that the bureaucrats had taken this decision for their own comfort.

He said that country has already suffered a lot due to long holidays and exports are suffering. He said that the two weekly holidays in government departments and its affiliated institutions in the name of energy conservation has not shown any positive result.

He said that this practice for closure of public sector, customs and ports has severely hampered the commercial and industrial activities. Exports of consignments and timely clearance of goods have also suffered. “Pakistan remains cut-off for three-and-a-half days with the rest of the world,” he said.

He supported the demand made by the KCCI to immediately de-notify five-day a week notice. The corporate sector is facing hardships in timely clearance of cheques; therefore, the National Institutional Facilitation Technologies (Nift) service formerly known as Clearing House of State Bank should remain operative on Saturdays, he said.

Nowhere in the world, banks remained closed when the commerce and industrial sector is operative even in the countries where five-day week is observed and commercial banks remained open on Saturdays, he said.

Exporters maintaining trade ties with the Gulf countries faced additional elimination of Friday being observed as holiday in the Gulf. Same is for the customs and ports and they cannot be closed down for two days as their closure will stop valuable exports of this country and delays in clearance of imported goods disturb supply of goods to upcountry, Ismail said.

For more information, Contact:
Muhammad Farhan
Public Relations Officer
Lasbela Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Ground floor, lieda office building, Hub, Dist. Lasbela,
Tel: (0853) 303410, 304461
Fax: (0853) 302431
E-Mail: farhanprolcci@yahoo.com