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Friday March 29, 2024

Smart lockdown continues to be a joke across city on second day of relaxed restrictions

By Our Correspondent
May 13, 2020

On the second day of the so-called smart lockdown on Tuesday, people of Karachi thronged different garment markets while electronics and mobile phone shops witnessed a rather lower footfall.

Since Monday, the smart COVID-19 lockdown has been nothing more than a joke as markets and retail outlets across the city have been found to be blatantly violating the standard operating procedures (SOPs), including arguably the most essential rule of observing social distancing.

Karachi Traders’ Association Chairman Atiq Mir told The News that the purchasing power of the people of the city has decreased so much that they are only able to buy the most essential commodities. He claimed that only a few families have been shopping for Eidul Fitr.

Gulistan-e-Jauhar resident Waleed Ahsan was at Zainab Market at around 2pm to buy some clothes. “We aren’t sure if the [strict] lockdown will be imposed again, which is why we’re shopping for Eid on an emergency basis,” he said.

He added that he and his wife had decided to head towards the Saddar market to buy all the essential commodities for the remaining month of Ramazan as well as for Eid, which is less than a fortnight away.

Mir believes that the current rush in markets is only 5 per cent to 10 per cent of that which is usually observed in the holy month of Ramazan.

“Mostly the middle-class markets, such as those in Saddar, Liaquatabad and Karimabad, are being thronged by people,” he said. And many of these people are those who are out there just to see if the lockdown has really been lifted, he claimed.

“If you want to find out if people are really out there to buy, you can see how many shopping bags they’re holding after they’re done shopping,” he explained.

As for the business timings of 6am to 4pm allowed by the Sindh government, Mir said that those are very unreasonable because the shopkeepers do not get much time to do business.

Generally, he said, shops in big markets are opened between 12pm and 1pm because before that time, no shopper makes their way to any of the markets. “And after 1pm, you have hardly three hours to do business.”

When asked why traders do not open their shops at 6am, he said that no buyer would head to the market directly after Sehri. If the government allows extension in the business hours, there will not be such rush at the markets, he pointed out.

As for the SOPs and social distancing, he said that it is very difficult to observe social distancing at garment shops because they are smaller in size and buyers have been flocking to them in large numbers. He claimed that the shopkeepers are trying to observe social distancing, “but it’s the buyers who don’t listen”.

In a statement issued by his office on Monday, Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani had said that no shopkeeper or customer would be allowed inside any market without a mask, stressing that the permission to reopen shops was linked to compliance with the SOPs.

However, Mir believes that it is very difficult for traders to comply with such SOPs because there are clusters of buyers inside small streets of the markets, saying that it is the law enforcement agencies that can control such shoppers. He claimed that the commissioner’s SOPs are not very practical. Warning

Saddar Assistant Commissioner Asif said “we can’t arrest everyone”. He said they cannot deploy police officials at every shop in the city. In DHA, he added, they sealed a stationary shop for violating the SOPs.

“We’ve been making rounds of shops and markets to warn and educate the shoppers and shopkeepers,” he said, adding that the traders’ associations have assured the authorities of complying with the SOPs.

“We’ve told them that if they don’t comply with the SOPs, there can be a [strict] lockdown in place again,” he said. Shopkeepers have been advised against letting shoppers inside their shops without masks, he added.

As for Garden Assistant Commissioner Asma Batool, she has set up an awareness camp regarding the novel coronavirus at Ranchore Line on the instructions of the South deputy commissioner.

She said they have thermal guns for monitoring the temperature of citizens as well as handwashing facilities at their camp. “We made announcements on loudspeakers asking citizens to observe social distancing.”

Traders have been given two days to comply with the SOPs. She warned that from Wednesday (today), they may start sealing off shops and outlets where social distancing is not being observed and other SOPs are not being complied with.