KARACHI: President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Shamim Ahmed Firpo, while expressing deep concerns over no progress to deal with transporters’ strike and the losses of up to billions of rupees each day being suffered by the business and industry, urged the government to amicably resolve the issue on priority basis in order to provide relief to the perturbed business community and save the economy from further disaster.
In a statement issued, Shamim Ahmed Firpo said that the business and industrial community has already suffered too much losses during the last nine days of transporters’ strike and they simply cannot afford further damages hence, the government must deal with this issue on war-footing basis and come up with a feasible option which is acceptable to all the stakeholders.
He informed that when goods transporters’ strike has entered 10th day, there was no space available at the ports to accommodate further imported containers and the situation is likely to cause severe shortages of many imported commodities in the local markets which requires immediate intervention keeping in view the forthcoming holy month of Ramazan in which the demand for commodities rises sharply.
“Prolong strike ahead of Ramazan has terribly affected the entire supply chain including inland supplies and export consignments, besides resulting in severe containers’ congestion at the ports in the country. The immovable containers loaded with agricultural commodities will also result in shortages of these commodities in the local markets and encourage black marketers to benefit from the situation”, he added.
He further said that it was a matter of grave concern that around 50,000 import/ export containers remain stuck up at the ports, warehouses and godowns, which have to be moved particularly the consignments carrying perishable items otherwise all these consignments would decay, causing severe losses to relevant businessmen and industrialists. “If the situation goes on like this, it will result in closure of many industrial units, rendering thousands of workers and daily-wage earners jobless”, he added.
President KCCI was of the opinion that this was not an issue being suffered by Karachi only but the entire business community of the country suffers badly due to transporters’ strike as the export consignments from upcountry cannot be moved to the ports in Karachi.
He opined that that thousands of goods carriers have come to a complete halt in Karachi due to this indefinite strike and if it continues for long, it will not only give losses to the industrialists but will also have a grave impact on Pakistan’s economic performance.
President KCCI advised the representatives of goods transporters that if they have any issue, the same can be resolved through table talks but going on an indefinite strike was not a wise move. He said that KCCI never supports such strikes but will only welcome table talks and is ready to provide KCCI’s platform for resolving these issues.
He said that the entire economic activities remain at a standstill throughout the country as thousands of container trucks were participating in the strike, resulting in cancellation of many export orders. “We make untiring efforts to fetch these export orders and cannot let these orders go away to our competitors due to such strikes. I urge the decision makers to take notice of the situation and convince goods transporters to immediately call off their strike”, he added.
