By By our correspondent
The two big chambers of commerce in Karachi, the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), in press statements issued on Wednesday strongly condemned the government for discussing two holidays a week.
“The business community holds the firm opinion that the five-day week proposal will hit the productivity and performance of official departments,” FPCCI President Sultan Ahmed Chawla said.
He said there is already a widening demand and supply gap due to the electricity shortage and an additional holiday would further slow down the work process.
He said the problem is not electricity shortage but effective management. “We need to evolve a comprehensive plan to improve both energy availability and energy usage,” he said.
The businessmen are of the view that in order to curtail the government expenditure, austerity measures should be taken to minimise and control management and administrative costs. They demanded of the cabinet to evolve a strategy to control the expenditures while controlling administrative expenses and defer the five-day week proposal for public sector institutions.
The FPCCI president maintained that the present economic condition demanded attention towards increasing interaction with major trading partners around the globe.
He also pointed out that the norm is to consider Friday as a half day, which will in fact result in 2-1/2-day holidays. Furthermore, 32 per cent of labour force is engaged in daily wages, what will happen to these poor workers due to two weekly holidays, said he.
He suggested that saving of energy on Saturday could not be utilised next day rather it would be more appropriate to reduce working hours in a week.