Naanbais across the city had shutdown their shops in response to the Anjuman-e-Nanbian Peshawar’s call for an indefinite strike on Wednesday. While a small faction of the bread bakers association had announced to call-off their strike on Wednesday, most of the more than 1300 tandoors in Peshawar remained closed across the city on the first day of the strike and the first half on Thursday.
Some restaurants had to bring rotis from Nowshera and Bara and were charging Rs15 per roti, instead of their usual price of Rs10. Faizullah, a restaurant owner in Saddar in Peshawar, told The Express Tribune that he had purchased around 2000 rotis from Nowshera district due to the strike.
The main crux of the bread maker’s demands was an increase of 20 per cent in the price of roti, from Rs5 to Rs6. The price of a roti is already Rs6 in Islamabad. The association announced to call off the strike following their discussion with authorities on Thursday.
Mohammad Shiraz, President Anjuman-e-Nanbian Peshawar, told The Express Tribune that they agreed to end their strike because the authorities accepted most of their demands, save for increasing the price of roti.
Shiraz said that their delegation had a meeting with Special Magistrate Habibullah Arif and Arbab Alamgir, member of provincial assembly. Shiraz said the two officials assured him that that the issue of roti prices will be picked up after Muharram.
In the meeting, the government agreed to lift the ban on baking double rotis (double the size of a normal roti) and also that the tandoors will be checked by the food department officials -- the junior staff will not pester them.
“The authorities also agreed to lower down the fines to Rs500 [for failing to meet the food department’s rules], which previously stood between Rs 5,000-10, 000,” Shiraz added.
As part of their negotiations, flour dealers in Rampura and Dalazak Road will now be required to display a price-list at prominent places in their shops. The current District Price Review Committee has been dissolved and the new committee will include two nanbais. The authorities also agreed to release the 25 nanbais that were arrested on Wednesday, Shiraz added.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 12th, 2010.
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