Rift between KCCI, small traders takes new turn

A faction of small traders announces support for KCCI.

KARACHI: The ongoing rift between small traders and big industrialists of Karachi has taken a new turn with a group of small traders announcing that it will support the big industrialists rather than their own leaders.

A faction of small traders announced its support for Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) during a press conference at Karachi Press Club on Monday. The split in small traders came after their leaders challenged KCCI decisions recently.

The Central General Secretary of All Pakistan Organisations of Small Traders and Cottage Industries, Mehboob Azam, said that he had called an All Karachi Tajir Convention on October 5 to muster support of all small traders for big industrialists.

Azam criticised All Karachi Tajir Ittehad Chairman Atiq Mir for parting ways with KCCI. Mir had accused the KCCI leadership of being soft on the government, as it failed to act after killings of traders at the hands of extortionists.

The gulf between the two groups widened in April when small traders asked KCCI to call a strike against the government for its inaction against extortionists.

They demanded that KCCI should take a hard line against the government’s inaction while big industrialists wanted to give the government more time to improve law and order in Karachi.

When KCCI decided to observe a peaceful protest instead of calling a strike in April, the infuriated traders went on strike with the apparent backing of a leading political party of Karachi.

That development further exposed the increasing political influence among traders. However, neither group acknowledges that it has the support of any political party.

KCCI, which is the representative body of over 17,000 businesses of Karachi, claims that it is apolitical. But its opposition to the strike called by small traders dragged it into the political arena, and the lines were drawn between the two factions.

Sources say that the split in small traders is also politically motivated. They say that one group consists of traders who sympathise with a leading religious party while the other group enjoys the support of a top political party.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th,  2011.