Surge in crime rate: LCCI urges govt to ensure early formation of BPLC

RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the government to immediately announce formation of Businessmen Police Liaison Committee (BPLC) as law and order is getting out of hand with every passing day.

The LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh in a statement on Tuesday said that daily bank dacoities, burglaries at jewellery markets, repeated incidents of car, mobile and purse snatching are enough to prove that police alone cannot handle law and order situation.

He said that the Lahore Chamber was under tremendous pressure over bad law and order situation from the business community and is seeking LCCI help for getting arms licenses to cope with law and order situation.

The LCCI President said that the Lahore Chamber has been calling long for now the formation of Businessmen Police Liaison Committee but no action has so far been taken by the concerned authorities. He said that provision of security to the citizens is government’s responsibility but unfortunately it has miserably failed to fulfill its responsibility.

Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that bad law and order situation is not only hitting the local investments but also sending a very wrong signal to foreign investors. He said that it has also caused brain drain and industry drain as a large number of industrial units have shifted their operations to other countries. He said that business friendly atmosphere is a pre requisite to investment and industrialization. Therefore, he said, the government would have to listen to the business community point of view for bringing peace back to this land of opportunities.

He said that the countries that were far behind us a few decades ago are now progressing leaps and bound while the economic situation in Pakistan is not satisfactory and this is only because of bad law and order situation. He said that in 60s the collective exports of a number of Far Eastern Countries were much smaller than Pakistan and today each country has bigger export than Pakistan, They achieved this goal by giving due consideration to the proposals of their business communities.

Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that the business activities had already come to grinding halt due to acute shortage of electricity and inflation and now the surge in crime rate has multiplied the problems of the business community.