President of the United Business Group (UBG), Zubair Tufail, has thanked Karachi Commissioner Syed Hassan Naqvi for successfully ending the five-day-long strike by goods transport vehicles at Karachi’s ports and container terminals. Zubair Tufail stated that although the export sector suffered severe losses due to the strike, the authorities delayed unnecessarily in resolving the issue. He noted that if transporters had been granted six months for vehicle fitness on the first day of the strike, exporters and the national economy could have avoided losses amounting to millions of dollars.

According to UBG’s central spokesperson, Gulzar Feroz, Zubair Tufail emphasized that the disruption in consignment deliveries not only caused a shortage of imported goods in the market, but also led to the spoiling of export items due to the halted movement of hundreds of containers.

He added that not only did goods in containers get damaged, but exporters also suffered significant financial losses, with shipments being held up in factories and warehouses. For exporters, this situation was extremely distressing, as they were already operating under challenging economic conditions and could not afford additional financial burdens.

Zubair Tufail appealed to Prime Minister Mian Shehbaz Sharif to ensure that exporters and importers who suffered losses—and are now being charged demurrage and detention fees—receive relief from these charges and that their losses are duly compensated.