Traders express fear over security

Trade community threatens to protest if situation not improves in 10 days.

KARACHI: The trade community in Karachi has expressed concern over the continuing wave of target killings in the city, which has badly affected economic activity in the city.

Traders pointed out that the closure of markets after killings of traders had become a routine, and most trading centres of the city were forced to remain closed every couple of days.

The business community could only work for 10 days in the first 23 days of March, which subsequently caused a loss of Rs10 billion to the na tional economy. Karachi Tajir Ittehad Chairman Atique Mir said markets were presenting a deserted look because of the fear spread by target killings.

He explained that trading had shrunk to 10 per cent of its volume, forcing traders to lay off more than 20 per cent of their employees.

Mir said that if the law and order situation in the city did not improve in the next ten days, traders would begin protests, which will include refusal to file tax returns.

Marriot Road Traders Association Chairman Muhammad Ahmed Shamsi and Old Area Traders Alliance Chairman Jamil Ahmed Paracha also voiced their concerns, saying that the recent wave of unrest in Karachi had inflicted mental agony on traders.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2011.