Withholding tax: Partial strike fails to make a loud statement

Half of the shops in major markets remained open for business

LAHORE: Traders’ associations failed to whip up overwhelming support on Wednesday in their call for protest against withholding tax as half of the city’s large markets remained open for business throughout the day. 

Half of the shops in Shah Alam Market, Azam Market, Moti Bazaar, Urdu Bazaar, shops in Badami Bagh, Anarkali and Shahdara, and shops on Nisbet Road, Brandreth Road, Circular Road, and Railway Road were open for business throughout the day. The other half shuttered down and went on a strike announced by the All Pakistan Traders Association’s Khalid Pervaiz group.

Markets on Shalimar Link Road, Model Town Link Road, Multan Road, Defence, Ferozepur Road and Jail Road remained open.

Naeem Mir of the All Pakistan Traders Association said half of the markets in Sargodha, Pakpattan, Gujrat, Lahore and Okara had responded to Pervaiz’s call for strike and shuttered down. However, traders in Sheikhupura, Kasur, Gujrat, Jhelum, Faisalabad, Chakwal, Jhang, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Multan, Khanewal, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, Bahalnagar, Vehari, Dera Ghazi Khan and Muzaffargarh paid no heed to the call for strike.

All Pakistan Traders Association’s Naeem Mir group, which had called a similar strike on August 1, did not participate in the strike on Wednesday. “We didn’t participate, but we weren’t opposed to it…We remained silent spectators.”

He said dissent among traders’ unions had adversely impacted their cause. He said that he had asked Pervaiz if he had wanted to call a strike together in the coming days, but he wasn’t interested.

“These failed strikes are the reason why the government hasn’t reached out to traders yet,” Mir said.

He said traders planned to meet in Islamabad on August 10 to discuss a strategy for protest against the government.

Babar Butt, president of the Pakistan Small Traders and Cottage Industry, said he had told members of his association to act as they saw fit. “I told them they could join the strike if they wanted to, but they didn’t.”

Talking to The Express Tribune, Khalid Pervaiz said the strike had been a successful one. Most of the shops on Hall Road, Beaden Road, Montgomery Road, McLeod Road, Ganpat Road and in Urdu Bazaar were shut, he said. “Shops in posh areas don’t count…they don’t close even for Eid.”

When told that shops in Shah Alam Market had remained open, he said even if they did not close for business, they didn’t get any business. “Ask any trader there if they made money today?” He said fruit and vegetable markets were closed throughout the province. He said the shops that were open were owned by traders who had political affiliations.

When asked if someone from the government had contacted them, he said, “The government won’t acquiesce so quickly. They will take a day or two to think about it and then reach out to us.”

When asked about a strategy for the future, he said that they would announce it in a few days after consulting with divisional presidents of traders’ unions across the country.

The Goods Transporters’ Association has separately called a province-wide strike against the tax.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2015.