It’s not appropriate to close Karachi at this time: PTI

Delegations of Karachi’s various traders’ bodies on Wednesday continued to meet leaders of the city’s political parties to seek their support to pressure the Sindh government into allowing them to reopen their businesses.

On Monday, a delegation of traders led by All Karachi Tajir Ittehad head Atiq Mir had met the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan to seek their support. On Tuesday, the Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) city chief attended a traders’ protest in North Nazimabad.

The JI has also convened a traders’ convention at the party’s headquarters on Thursday to devise a plan of action after consultation with traders’ leaders. Also on Tuesday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders met a delegation of traders led by All City Tajir Ittehad head Sharjeel Goplani.

On Wednesday, Mir and leaders of various markets met representatives of the PTI and the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) to inform them about the sufferings of traders due to the preventive lockdown against COVID-19 imposed since March.

‘Devise SOPs’

MPA Khurrum Sher Zaman, the PTI’s city president, told a news conference after the traders’ delegation had apprised him and other office-bearers of the party about their problems that the purpose of the meeting was to find a solution to the issue.

“We demand that the Sindh government immediately devise SOPs [standard operating procedures]. Now the payroll class is also upset. It’s not appropriate to close Karachi at this time.”

He said that as the PTI had emerged as the largest political party from Karachi in the 2018 general elections, the party had been representing the city’s people, particularly its traders.

“The party’s Karachi leadership has also informed Prime Minister Imran Khan about the situation as well as the sufferings of the traders of the city.”

Zaman said the provincial government had been subjecting Karachi to stepmotherly treatment and hiding in the bunker of the Bilawal House while the residents of the city were starving.

The PTI leader assured the traders that he would arrange their meeting with the PM. “No system has been created for online business. [Sindh Chief Minister] Murad Ali Shah needs to have sincere people around him.”

Zaman said Shah should realise that if Karachi is closed, the entire country will be closed. The provincial government does not have the courage to devise SOPs, he added.

The PTI city chief said his party would raise the concerns of the traders. “The next death will be from hunger instead of the novel coronavirus, and then things will get out of hand.”

Mir said on the occasion that it is not just the government, but traders also want to fight COVID-19. “We the traders are demanding our legitimate rights. Our workers are starving. We should be allowed to do business in a safe and limited way.”

He pointed out that Eidul Fitr was fast approaching, as half of Ramazan had almost passed. “If the Sindh government doesn’t cooperate, we’ll step back and let the shopkeepers take the lead.”

MPA Saeed Afridi, PTI Karachi general secretary; MNA Faheem Khan, additional general secretary; MPA Jamal Siddiqui, information secretary; MPA Raja Azhar; and party leaders Arsalan Mirza, Imran Siddiqui and Tauqeer Ahmed were also present on the occasion.

‘Discrimination’

The Mir-led delegation also met PSP chief Mustafa Kamal at the Pakistan House, the party’s headquarters, where Kamal announced his party’s support for all the legitimate demands of the city’s traders.

After the meeting, Kamal said Karachi, which contributed 68 per cent of the country’s revenue to the national exchequer, was deprived of its basic rights, adding that the city’s so-called representatives sitting in different tiers of the government were not serious about resolving even its basic problems.

“There’s a dangerous impression among Karachi’s people that first, the status of the port city was changed, then its citizens were deprived of government jobs, then key institutions were shifted out of here, and now the last surviving source of employment — business — is also being destroyed by corrupt and incompetent provincial and federal governments through biasness.”

He said the PSP strongly condemned the discriminatory approach of the government towards the business community of Karachi during the lockdown, which strengthened the perception of ulterior motives behind the city’s debacle.

He also said that the present system and the rulers had completely failed to solve the problems of the people. “People’s patience is running thin, and no power on Earth can control the situation if the people take to the streets against this corrupt system.”

He said that incompetent and corrupt rulers valued their political and personal interests more than national interests, adding that since the government had failed to deliver rations to the people’s doorstep, all the traders should be allowed to resume their business activities without discrimination to save the people from hunger.

The PSP chief said the government should devise a strategy for traders, for keeping people safe from starvation and for preventing deaths due to COVID-19.

Mir and other business leaders informed Kamal about their business issues, and rejected the draft of the Sindh government’s online business SOPs. They said the stepmotherly treatment with Karachi’s traders should be stopped, as the virus had attacked the already ailing economy.

They demanded that if the lockdown SOPs were not being imposed on the vendors already operating in the city, they should also be allowed to reopen their businesses.