Commenting on government move for observing two weekly holidays, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry stressed for uninterrupted electricity and gas supply to industry in the wake of observing this initiative to avoid any negative impact of this step on manufacturing and industrial productivity.

Zahid Maqbool, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) emphasized that government should also work on long term energy solutions for exploiting wind, solar, hydro, coal and other renewable energy sources instead of resorting to short cut measures for sustainable development of business activities in the country.

He said power crisis has emerged as a serious problem halting business & industrial growth and affecting exports of the country and hoped that this step may help in mitigating some of the harmful effects of power shortage on business activities by saving more energy for reliable power supply to industrial units.

He said banking transactions should not be affected by this move otherwise, trading community will face problems if banks remain closed for two days. Similarly stock exchanges should remain open for six days in the larger national interest.

Zahid Maqbool was expressed the hope that implementation of two weekly holidays should lead to energy and fuel saving, reduction in country’s expenditure on import bill as well as improvement in country’s balance of payments. He said it may also help in improving the efficiency and productivity of workforce as they will get proper rest for two days and perform better.

He said observing two weekly holidays is an international practice as most of the developed countries are following this pattern while many multinational and national companies in Pakistan are already observing two holidays. However, he called upon the government to ensure that this step will not have any harmful effect on national productivity and the economy.