Fear hampers industrial, commercial activities

Businesses remained closed for most of the day.

KARACHI:

Fear has once again come to haunt the trade and industry which hampered industrial and commercial activities for the third day in a week on Saturday following re-eruption of target killings of political activists as well as common citizens.

On Saturday, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) declared a day of mourning after its sympathisers were killed on Friday night, which resulted in partial to complete shutdown of major industrial and commercial centres of the city.

In the morning, the city looked completely deserted in the absence of public transport, even rickshaw and taxis were virtually absent from major roads. However, later in the evening, vehicles did appear on many roads.

Chairman of Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI), one of the biggest industrial zones of the city, Ehtesham Uddin, said very few industries worked during the day because of absence of workers.

“This was the third time in just one week when the city was closed partially or completely,” he said. “This continued strike-like situation has badly shaken the industries.”

Though commercial centres stood closed in the first half of the day, leading traders announced the opening of major markets in the evening to compensate for lost sales in the morning.

Markets will also remain open on Sunday to recover some of the losses suffered due to closures during the week.

However, industrial units may not be able to operate on Sunday because of planned suspension of gas supply under the weekly gas load management programme of Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC).

Ehtesham Uddin warned that if the violence was not brought under control, tax collection would markedly fall short of target in fiscal year 2011-12.

Officials of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) have also indicated a loss of billions of rupees in tax collection every day, caused by the bad law and order situation in Karachi.

Another industrialist said though some employees reported for work, he could not run his factory as managers could not be able to reach the workplace. The violence and strikes have also equally hurt millions of daily wage earners. Industrialists said the labourers, who depend on day-to-day earnings, were the most vulnerable who could not afford a single off day in a week, let alone three days.

To overcome the deteriorating law and order situation, the businessmen and industrialists have pressed the government to take necessary measures, and in case of failure the growing losses would eventually leave a devastating impact on the overall economy.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2012.