close
Thursday March 28, 2024

PTI backs traders protesting against closure of businesses for two days a week

By Our Correspondent
September 04, 2021

Showing solidarity with the traders’ association and participating in their hunger strike camp against the Sindh government’s decision of keeping markets closed two days a week, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders accused the Pakistan Peoples Party’s provincial government on Friday of adopting a dual policy for Karachi and Hyderabad and the rest of the province in its measures to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Sindh Assembly opposition leader Haleem Adil Sheikh led the PTI delegation, which visited the protest camp set up by the Karachi Traders Action Committee on MA Jinnah Road to express solidarity with the traders. He assured them of the PTI’s support for their campaign. PTI MPA Raja Azhar and other leaders accompanied him.

“The PPP government has segregated Karachi and Hyderabad from the rest of Sindh, and residents, particularly trade and industrial communities, of the two largest cities are suffering arbitrary and unjustified decisions of the government,” said Sheikh while talking to media along with representatives of trade organisations of the city.

Sheikh, who is also the PTI’s central vice-president, said that the Sindh government had adopted double standards for the traders of Karachi who were contributing 70 per cent of taxes to the revenue of the country.

“It was embarrassing to see the traders on roads instead of running their businesses,” he said and added that the CM and his team were unaware of the miseries of common men as well as of the problems being faced by traders and industrialists of the province.

Sheikh censured the provincial government for what he called “anti-Karachi, anti-business and anti-people decisions and actions”. He called upon Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to consider traders’ demands and revisit such decisions which could affect the national economy.

“The PPP is arranging public gatherings, rallies and other political activities in violation of coronavirus SOPs, but at the same time they are against the opening of businesses and schools.” The PTI leader said that Karachi police could only be seen active at the time set for closing markets, but they failed to dispose of their basic duty, i.e. maintenance of peace and order in the metropolis. “As many as 363 drug dens are operating in the city in connivance with police officers,” he alleged.

He said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Murad Ali Shah had turned their eyes away from issues of traders and daily wage-earners. Sheikh said Prime Minister Imran Khan was against the policy of closing businesses, and the PTI government took such measures that ensured prevention of diseases and continuity of economic activities at the same time.

Revenue generation was pivotal to meet the public expenditure and provision of basic facilities to the masses, and it was not possible without allowing businesses to run, he stated and urged the Sindh government to accept the demands of traders.

“The PTI will table a resolution in the Sindh Assembly in support of the traders’ demands, while a letter in this regard will also be written to the chief secretary of Sindh.” Sheikh said the PTI Sindh would wholeheartedly support the struggle of traders and would be standing shoulder to shoulder with them. He said PTI lawmakers would regularly attend the protest camp, and if the traders decided to march towards the CM House, they would find PTI legislators and workers in the forefront.

Trade representatives Rizwan Irfan, Sharjeel Goplani and Jamil Piracha thanked Sheikh for extending support to the traders, and said the Sindh government’s decision would negatively affect the trade and business and push thousands of people into financial hardships.

Due to coercive and arbitrary policies of the PPP government, a number of traders and industrialists were shifting their businesses from Karachi to other provinces, Irfan said. He appealed to the federal government to take immediate action to save the national economy from further damage.