KARACHI: Acting President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Khurram Shahzad, while referring to widespread rumors circulating in the Social Media about Friday to be declared as weekly off, cautioned that any move to shift weekly holiday from Sunday to Friday would be resisted and it should not be done as it will completely cutoff Pakistan from many western countries around the world for three-and-a-half consecutive days.
The weekly off on Friday instead of Sunday would prove detrimental for the country’s economy and the government will not be able to achieve numerous goals set to pull the economy out of crises, Khurram Shahzad said, adding that it will terribly hurt the exports to major destinations in Europe, United States and other western and far eastern countries where Saturday and Sunday are usually observed as weekly holidays.
He said, “The Karachi Chamber and the business & Industrial community struggled really hard in the past to get the weekly holiday reverted from Friday to Sunday in the larger interest of the country and its economy. This mistake must not be repeated again otherwise the business community will resist as we simply cannot afford inaccessibility to western countries for three-and-a-half consecutive days.”
If these rumors about shifting weekly off to Friday are actually true or anyone has given this recommendation, the government should immediately shun such a pathetic recommendation as it will have a negative impact across-the-board”, Acting President added.
He said that the present state-of-affairs demand uninterrupted functioning of industrial units and an enabling business environment therefore, such a recommendation to declare Friday as weekly holiday should immediately be discarded and the decision makers must come forward to clarify these rumors which have triggered a lot of anxiety amongst the people from all walks of life and the business and industrial community of Pakistan.
