Closing highways over canals’ issue not justified: FCCI

FAISALABAD: Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Rehan Naseem Bharara has said that there is absolutely no justification for closing major highways in Sindh over the issue of canals following Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s decision to convene a meeting of the Council of Common Interests on May 2.

He said that in a democratic society, differences are resolved through mutual dialogue. Under this positive thinking, the Prime Minister has called a meeting of the Council of Common Interests to resolve the canal dispute so that differences can be resolved democratically.

He said that the earlier demand of the strikers was that this controversial issue should be resolved in a legal and constitutional manner in a meeting of the Council of Common Interests. Now that the government has called a meeting of the Council of Common Interests, there is absolutely no justification for the closure of roads. He said that the road closures are severely affecting exports and imports, which is actually a loss for the entire country. He said that exports play an important role in the revival of the country’s economy and it is an unwise move to obstruct this process, which will only harm the strikers themselves.

He said that it seems that the strikers are working on some other agenda. However, the Sindh government must take immediate and practical steps to resolve this issue; otherwise the process of increasing exports will come to a halt, which will adversely affect the efforts to revive the economy.

He said that a large number of export containers have been stopped due to the closure of roads, which has caused a loss of two billion dollars to trade so far, and if the roads are not opened immediately, the problems of the country’s economy will increase further.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025