The Acting President Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) Malik Shahid Saleem has said that national economy is under deep stress owing to prevailing Azadi/Inqilaab Marches and especially these marches destroy the business activities of the Rawalpindi.
He said data collected from the trade associations of the city and Cantt shows that billion of rupees loss was witnessed during last four days due to closure of roads and interregional trade of poultry, marble, fruits and vegetables is completely destroyed but neither media nor government take notice of the situation. He demanded of the government to resolve the situation at the earliest to put the country on the path of economic growth.
He stated this while chairing a high-level emergent meeting of former presidents, leaders of traders associations of the city and Cantt and members' executive committee at Chamber on Saturday. Group leader Shaikh Shabbir, former presidents Sohail Altaf, S.M Naseem, Dr Hassan Sarosh Akram, Najam Rehan and Syed Asad Mashadi and members of executive committee were also present on the occasion.
Shahid Saleem said that daily wager class is at large scale badly affected by the current situation. He said that business community is not a party to take sides of govt or the protesters but it is the responsibility of the government to maintain a business friendly atmosphere that's why Rawalpindi Chamber demands government to resolve the issue at earliest. He further said that due to closure of international flights, roads and delay in fulfilling the exports orders creating a negative image of the country in the world. He said that containers which were used to block the roads by the government are full of different goods, now after one week the commodities have been rotton and questioned who will bear the damages. He also demanded of the government to pay all the dues of the container affectees.