Power management: Markets to go dark after 8pm

Citizens, traders slam cabinet panel’s decision, eateries to shut down after 10pm.

ISLAMABAD:

The government on Wednesday approved an energy saving plan for the capital under which shops would have to close as early  as 8pm.

The decision was taken  in a Cabinet Committee on Energy meeting presided over by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The decision would also affect eateries and wedding halls and is based on the increase in power demand that accompanies the onset of summer.

For Islamabad, it has been decided that markets would close by 8pm, restaurants by 10pm, and wedding halls by 11pm.

Traders and restaurateurs  however, slammed the move, saying it would hit business and could even lead to layoffs.

Traders in Blue Area, already hurting due to metro bus project construction work, said the decision would “further squeeze the already-narrow space for business opportunities in Islamabad.”

The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has called a meeting on Thursday to explore options to develop consensus on the government’s decision after bringing different traders’ unions representatives to the table, said ICCI President Muzammil Hussain Sabri.

“We understand that the government has been facing challenges due to electricity shortages, but we also want the government to address the problems traders have been facing on multiple fronts,” Sabri said.

It’s a matter of give and take, Sabri said, adding that the government and traders would sit down and hash out a strategy that worked in the interest of both sides.

Junaid Haleem, a trader in Super Market, F-6, deplored the decision, saying that commerce in all major market areas near metro bus construction areas has been very low since the project began.

“Instead of finding a way to compensate traders [for the lowered sales], the government has decided to penalise us even more…they are rubbing salt in our wounds,” Haleem commented.

Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders and Small Industries President Kamran Abbasi said the traders could facilitate government efforts to conserve electricity, but only by shutting down extra or elaborate lights and signs on shops after 8pm.

“It is beyond comprehension…to close shops by 8pm in a city where routine business activities start around 7pm,” Abbasi added.

He said traders were ready to extend cooperation, but not at the risk of winding up their businesses.

He said different business unions were scheduled to discuss the issue in detail tomorrow and would offer a consensus opinion on the government’s announcement after the meeting.

Meanwhile, Aamir Ali, who works at a call centre, quipped that the government wanted him to starve to death. “I get done with work after midnight. I live alone and all I want is a hot meal at that time. Do these people think I’m going to go home and cook at that time?”

Usman Ahmad of New Yorker Pizza was upset by the decision, saying, “PML-N is making roads, but where would people use them to go if everything is closed?”

He said the decision would lead to layoffs in the restaurant industry as owners would need to find a way to stay profitable, creating a vicious cycle that would lead to economic decline. He lamented that such a decision was taken by a political party which heralds itself as being pro-business.

Meanwhile, a bureaucrat who asked not to named said, “I’m having an after dinner coffee with the wife. Has the government considered what will happen to the guy serving us right now?”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th, 2015.