KARACHI:
Although Karachi’s business community wants the government to go after extortionists, it is divided over whether to become a petitioner in the Supreme Court’s suo motu notice for fear that the mafia will eventually target them.
Businessmen who had announced on Tuesday that they will file a petition in the court seemed to back off from the decision.
“The Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry is not considering becoming a party to the case,” said KCCI President Saeed Shafiq but added that some industrialists might want to contribute in an individual capacity.
Wahab Lakhani, who chairs the SITE Association of Trade and Industry, reserved comment on the case, saying the matter was subjudice. However, he said, as an association they were not filing a petition.
“It is no secret that businessmen are so scared of political parties that they do not file FIRs against extortionists,” said a leading businessman, requesting anonymity. “It is true that the situation will not improve until businessmen come forward, but who will risk his life?”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2011.
COMMENTS (6)
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Business Community MUST put their case forward to Supreme Court and reveal the cul-prits ,This might be their last chance to get rid off the menace ,as the 10,000 police appointed by Zulfiqar Mirza from the Interior of Sindh , is not going to protect you .
The people of Karachi know why these 10,000 police have been appointed by ZM from the Interior Sindh FOR Karachi , and this obvious they are not here to save you ,on the contrary this could be quite opposite . Just waith and see and mark my word .
Your fear will be the cause of your downfall.By not coming forward and do what morally they should be doing, because they fear for their and their families lives, they are not making life for themselves or their families easier because they are still at gun point!! If they were any wiser they would fight against the zulm so that the future genarations can live in peace. Money comes and goes and the fact that everyone in karachi is under seige means whatever these businessmen own right now will be gone in due course and land in the posssession of the ones who are holding them at GUN POINT!!!! Be wise and think,
Nobody is at loss except innocent general public or poor helpless Pakistanis.
Welcome army..save Pakistan from dirty politicians.. Please make sure dirty politicians remains in Pakistan with their looted money. They did more damage to the country than Talibans.
The Police and Rangers are there to protect their own i.e. police officials, government officials, ministers, judges, etc. No one cares about the small guy or business man. Who can in these times think of calling the police if an incident happened unless if you knew some high police officials. We all know that theft cannot take place without the knowledge of the police. But, you see the problem is still not the police or rangers. The problem is our politicians. If you can get criminals freed based on call from political contacts then the system/police can never improve. The police need to be free from any political pressure and be unbiased against anyone arrested be it a labor, small trader, industrialist, or a political figure. We all know this is not going to be anytime soon so no need to waste time arguing and discussing about it. I think in this given environment we need to be critical of ourselves and make sure we, our family and people around us are following and abiding to the laws and maybe someone else may also start following the laws by seeing us. Try to be an example to others. It is something, better than to keep on complaining since the other guy is not following the law so why should I.
Businessmen are never at loss, they increase prices of their products and extort money from public. It`s a chain of extorting money, this way or that way.