President Lasbela Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Yakoob H Karim has said that 5-day Eid holidays from Friday to Tuesday (17th to 21st July) would cost the country at least $360 million. He urged decision makers to devise a national policy about holidays, criticising the five-day closure, especially of the banking sector he believed that this happened because Pakistan tried to copy Saudi Arabia in these matters, ignoring that it is a rich country.
He maintained that too many holidays on Eids and other occasions are having grave effects on the economy. Criticising the government's unwise and anti-economy decision to announce five-day holidays on Eid-ul-Fitr, he said that holidays on Monday and Tuesday are a sheer wasteful and unjustified. "We would remain disconnected with the outer world for almost a week which is not affordable to the export-oriented industry," Yakoob said.
"I think the policy decision is that we have to keep the begging bowl close to us all the time in future," he observed. Members of business community belonging to the diversified sectors have termed the long holidays as a "politically motivated decision". The impact of banks being inoperative for five days has not only been felt by the traditional exporters but also by the importers in the oil and gas sector." This trend of long holidays was initiated by the previous government. It is damaging businesses across the board.
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