LAHORE: The Customs House, FBR regional offices and dry ports remained open on Monday amid the protest rallies of Pakistan Tehreek e-Insaf (PTI).
Customs House Naba Road remained open for public dealing as all the officers including chief collector, additional collectors and deputy collectors marked their presence. One the other hand, a few members of the lower staff were absent in the house and the public visited the Customs House in a very small number.
Similarly, Regional office of the Federal Board of Revenue also observed routine timings as chief commissioners, commissioners, deputy commissioners and assistant commissioner were present at their offices. However, member of the public were not seen visiting the offices for their tax related issues’ resolution. Lahore Dry Port and Thokar Niaz Baig Dry Port also remained opened for the import and export business. However, official sources said that a far less volume of business activities was witnessed due to the PTI protest rallies.
On the other hand, city markets remained closed completely while customers were also not seen at the outlets despite the shutter down call of the PTI. The market including Hall Road, Mall Road, Hafiz Centre, Ichra, Shah Alam market, Azam cloth market and Liberty market all wore a deserted look. However, all banks including MCB Bank, HBL, Standard Chartered Bank, Mezzan Bank Alfalah , Habib Metropolitan Bank, Bank Al Habaib, National Bank of Pakistan and others opened sharp at 9am.
However, the banks were closed after half time due to the banks head office through the email circular asked the management to close down. The customers of banking sectors also conducted less transaction comparatively.
