KARACHI: This is with reference to your report of October 13, on the government agreeing to implement a five-day week for its departments and ministries and their affiliated organisations.
A five-day week needs to be looked at in the context of an economy which is not doing well, whose growth rate is very low, and where chronic power outages are only adding to the production shortfall.
A leader of the Federation of Chamber of Commerce and Industries has said that Pakistan cannot have a two-day weekend because it needs as many days as possible to work given frequent shutdowns caused by strikes and law and order issues. That is a fair argument but surely the first duty of our businessmen is to pay all their taxes in full, instead of worrying so much about one less working day in the week. If each and every one of them were to pay his share of tax, then it is likely that the government would not need to borrow money from foreign donors, to bridge the yawning gap between revenue and expenditure.
Also, many businesspeople live in palatial residences and have several cars. Why can’t they do something to modify their lifestyle given the acute power shortage in the country? Also, many of our industrial sectors have benefitted, and many still are, from tax exemptions and other government incentives. The point one is trying to make, is that instead of resisting this measure, those in charge of our business and industry should try and work with it and see if it makes a difference. It is worth reminding your readers that a country like Bangladesh, whose economy is doing quite well, also has a two-day weekend and there seem to be no major problems with it.
The media also has a role in this. Instead of rejecting such measures out of hand, as your editorial of October 14 did, it should examine them dispassionately. Perhaps, there is no harm in trying them out, because as far as the short-term is concerned, power generation capacity cannot be increased overnight.
Syed Sayef Hussain
Published in The Express Tribune, October 15th, 2011.
