SWABI: All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, traders in Lower Dir district and Kohat Chamber of Commerce and Industry have rejected Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan’s call for civil disobedience, saying it is a conspiracy against the state.

In Swabi, Aptma KP vice-chairman Liaquat Ali Khan said on Tuesday that members of his organisation had rejected Imran’s call for civil disobedience. Answering a question, he said that the reason for the textile industrialists’ opposition to the civil disobedience call was that it would prove harmful for them and the nation as a whole.

“This movement could harm the efforts for economic revival in the country. We oppose it,” he said.

Term it conspiracy against the state

Mr Liaquat, who runs his industry in Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate, said that the movement could pose a great challenge to the entrepreneurs. They decided to continue to paying their taxes and electricity and other utility bills.

Senator Usman Saifulllah, member of Aptma and one of the leading manufacturers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said that the civil disobedience movement was against the country’s interest.

He said that both the PTI and PML-N had failed to meet the people’s expectations. An entrepreneur said that industrialists should not be dragged into politics.

In Timergara, traders’ bodies of Lower Dir district issued separate statements on Tuesday, rejecting Imran’s call for civil disobedience and non-payment of utility bills and taxes.

Anjuman Tajaran Timergara president Anwaruddin, Anjuman Tajaran Chakdara president Faizul Ghafoor and Anjuman Tajaran Talash leader Fazal Qadir asked traders and residents of their respective areas not to heed to the call of PTI chairman.

In their statements, they said that there had been no justification for the civil disobedience, as the country was passing through critical situation. They said that the call for non-payment of utility bills amounted to destroying the national economy. They said that the two marches in Islamabad had already heavily affected trade and stock market.

They demanded of the PTI chief to immediately withdraw his call for civil disobedience.

Kohat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) has also rejected the PTI chairman’s call for civil disobedience. In a statement here on Tuesday, KCCI vice-president Rasheed Ahmed termed the call as illogical and impractical under the circumstances.

He said that the call for civil disobedience did not suit a leader of the stature of Mr Imran and advised him to raise his demands in parliament in a democratic way.

Mr Ahmed said that the foreign countries were uncertain about the future of Pakistan and they could stop investing money here. He feared that as a result of Mr Imran’s call the industry and business in the country would suffer a serious setback.

Besides, Kohat Bazaar Markets Association president Sher Khan Bangash has said that Mr Imran would get nothing from this call except causing damage to the country’s economy.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2014