The Sindh government has the fullest resolve to provide financial compensation to the fire-affected traders of the Cooperative Market and Victoria Market in Saddar in order to enable them to restart their business before the upcoming Eid shopping season.
An assurance to this effect was given by Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah as he visited the offices of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and held a meeting with the concerned businessmen of the city on Saturday.
The minister assured the businessmen that the provincial government had the firm resolve to compensate the aggrieved traders in accordance with estimates of their losses calculated by the representative committees of the shop owners.
He said Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had been concerned about the affected traders, adding that he had given clear-cut instructions to the provincial government that the financial compensation should be extended to the traders in order to help them to restart their business activities at the earliest.
The minister said Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah was also keen to extend compensation to the fire-affected traders. He said the members of Sindh cabinet, Saeed Ghani, Jam Ikramullah Dharejo, Waqar Mehdi Murtaza Wahab, had also been constantly in touch with the traders and they would soon get good news regarding their compensation.
On the occasion, the traders informed the Minister that 500 shops of the Cooperative Market had been completely gutted in the fire and they had completely lost their businesses. Similarly, all the shops on the fifth floor of the Victoria Market were gutted in a separate fire incident. The affected traders were keen to get financial support to revive their business activities without further delay.