RAWALPINDI: Rawalpindi’s trading community will observe a shutterdown strike on Wednesday to pressure the government to withdraw withholding tax on bank transactions.

Naveed Kanwal, spokesperson for the Supreme Council of Rawalpindi Traders, said traders across the country will hold a strike, and traders in the cantonment and city areas will close their stores following the government’s silence over the issue.

Kanwal said all three groups of traders were united on the decision to protest until the government withdrew the 0.06 per cent withholding tax.

He said the supreme council will consider expanding the protest to street level, adding that the strike would be peaceful but that traders would take extreme steps to keep shutters down if the government refuses to withdraw the tax.

PML-N Traders cell president and leader of the traders association Shahid Ghafoor Paracha said traders would not support PML-N if the government does not withdraw the tax immediately.