Grocers threaten Punjab-wide strike

RAWALPINDI:

A dispute between grocery merchants, the Punjab Enforcement and Regulatory Authority (Pera) force and the district administration intensified after talks aimed at preventing the sealing of grocery shops, heavy fines and arrests ended without agreement on Wednesday.

The Grocery Merchants Association has threatened to launch a complete shutter-down strike across Punjab from next week, while the Mianwali Grocery Association has already begun its strike.

Central Grocery Merchants Association Divisional president Saleem Parvez Butt alleged that the Pera force and district administration were continuously harassing grocery traders.

He claimed that dozens of grocery shops had been forcibly sealed in Mianwali and said the central association supported the immediate shutter-down strike announced by the district association.

Butt maintained that market committees could not legally issue licences to grocery shops and said sealing shops and imposing heavy fines on traders was unacceptable.

He said traders were already facing severe difficulties and could not be expected to purchase pulses, flour and rice at high prices and sell them at artificially low rates.

The trade leader also criticised the official price lists, describing them as unrealistic and calling on the government to intervene immediately. He demanded that all sealed grocery shops across the province be reopened.

Butt said a meeting of the central leadership would be held on Friday and warned that if the issue was not resolved, grocery merchants across Punjab would observe a complete shutter-down strike.