By Commerce Reporter
LAHORE – Former President of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Muhammad Ali Mian, has stated that the strike and wheel-jam call announced by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for February 8, 2026 has been out-rightly rejected by Pakistan’s business community, which considers it a blatant conspiracy against the national economy, employment and the common citizen.
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In a statement, Muhammad Ali Mian said that the politics of strikes is, in fact, the politics of holding the country hostage. At a time when Pakistan’s economy, after facing extreme challenges, is gradually moving towards stability, a call for a wheel-jam is tantamount to causing serious damage to the national interest.
The former LCCI President said that a single day’s strike results in billions of rupees in losses to the government in terms of tax revenue, industries are forced to shut down, export orders are delayed, investors retreat out of fear, and Pakistan’s global image suffers further. This damage is not borne by any political party, but by 240 million people of Pakistan.
He added that the worst victims of strikes are millions of daily-wage workers, whose household kitchens depend on their day-to-day earnings. On a wheel-jam day, workers receive no wages, transport comes to a halt, patients fail to reach hospitals, and business activities completely collapse. The question is whether this kind of politics serves the people or punishes them.
Muhammad Ali Mian said that Pakistan is already grappling with inflation, unemployment, weak exports and intense economic pressure. In such circumstances, calling for a strike is equivalent to delivering a final blow to the economy. The business community will not become part of this irresponsible and chaos-driven politics.
He added that traders and industrialists will not gamble their own future, the livelihoods of their employees, or the economic future of the country for the sake of any political agenda. He said that it is imperative to convey this message to all political forces that Pakistan can no longer afford strikes, arson, and wheel-jam politics. If there is genuine concern for the country and its people, politics must be kept separate from the economy. Pakistan today needs work, not slogans; stability, not chaos; production from factories, not politics on the streets.
