Time lost due to strikes/shutdowns: Industrialists likely to run factories also on Sundays

Industrialists may decide to keep their units running on Sundays in case of strikes during working days of a week, the Business Recorder learnt on Tuesday. Expressing serious concern over the prevailing law order condition in the city, they said that they could not afford indefinite closure of industrial units.
"We have to meet export commitments on time, earn enough to pay workers, besides meeting other expenses," they said. Vocalising fears about losing export contracts, they said: "Once we lose export market, we may not be able to recapture them." Chairman of the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) Ehtishamuddin said a meeting of the association members will be held soon to decided on the issue of strikes and decide on a future line of action.
He said that it had been proposed to keep industrial units running on Sunday in case industrial units remained closed during working days. He said that the association would also approach the managing director of the SSGC and apprise him of the situation and request him to allow industries to operate on Sunday.
The SSGC has imposed a condition to keep industrial units closed on Sundays to conserve gas. Expressing concern over persistent shutdowns shutdowns under the influence of political parties, President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Mian Abrar Ahmad said that commercial and industrial activities had been severely hampered during the previous week owing to shutdowns/strikes by political parties, adding that they had caused a loss of billions of rupees to the industrialists.
Criticising the government and law-enforcement agencies, he said that they were merely paying lip service and no concrete effort had been made for the safety and security of business and industrial communities. He said that over the past few months, the city had witnessed an unprecedented spike in incidents of extortion, murder and street crimes.