Islamabad:

The Standing Committee for National Assembly on Industries and Production has opposed a proposal to close supply stores across the country.

During the standing committee meeting, the chairman of Syed Hafeez Udin, the committee members said that about 16,000 employees will become unemployed in the event of closure of supply stores. They quoted the federal minister as saying on the floor of the assembly that the Corporation of the Utility Store would not be closed. Despite the insurance, if the USC is closed, it will damage the holiness of the house, the NA panel said.

The committee’s member Raja Perez Ashraf said that if the departments are closed on the basis of corruption, the whole country must have to be closed.

He said if there are shortcomings, the government should remove the shortcomings. USC is an important department where people get pricing, which adds “We are strongly against the move of the closure of USC.”

Ashraf said it is not appropriate that only a few people make a decision to close a department, that the addition of parliament should have been in confidence to make any decision.