Industrialists and traders have opposed the demand of some politicians to announce Friday a weekly holiday, saying that it will create disorder in working schedules and reduce production capacity rather than bringing discipline in official working.
They say that the present economic condition demands our attention towards increasing our interaction with our major trading partners around the globe and by announcing Friday a weekly holiday, the interaction time with our trading partners from western side will be reduced which will deprive our exporters to maintain liaison with them. Keeping in view the present need for more interaction with our importers from western side, the government should not announce Friday as weekly holiday, they urged.
The leadership of Businessmen Group (BMG) and office-bearers of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) have categorically stated that any move to change weekly holiday from Sunday to Friday was not acceptable at any cost to the business and industrial community of Karachi in particular and Pakistan in general. In a statement issued here, Chairman Businessmen Group & former President KCCI Siraj Kassam Teli, Vice Chairmen BMG Tahir Khaliq, Zubair Motiwala, Haroon Farooki and Anjum Nisar, President KCCI Younus Muhammad Bashir, Senior Vice President KCCI Zia Ahmed Khan and Vice President Muhammad Naeem Sharif stated that people and politicians, who are advocating of declaring Friday as weekly holiday nowadays, have a very short memory as it took strenuous efforts by the business and industrial community of Karachi to convince the government to declare Sunday as weekly holiday, which was done in 1997 by Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif during his previous tenure.
"Anybody advocating or demanding declaring Friday as weekly holiday is 'anti-state' element", they said, adding that the government must reject all recommendations and immediately discard any such resolution in the National Assembly as holiday on Friday will not only cause immense losses to the business and industrial community but will also terribly affect the economic performance of the country.
They further pointed out that it was not a religious obligation to observe Friday as weekly holiday. The only obligation is to take part in Friday Prayers and in this regard, every organisation in the private and public sectors remain suspended for two to three hours for Friday prayers", they added. "The business and industrial community of not just Karachi city but the entire Pakistan will never accept such an unwise and ill-advised decision pertaining to declaring Friday as weekly holiday because it will completely disconnect our businesses and Pakistan's trade with rest of the world for three consecutive days every week ie Friday, Saturday & Sunday," BMG leadership and KCCI Office-bearers said, adding that it will have a devastating impact on Pakistan's economy by further affecting the already depressing exports.