Cooperative Market traders threaten to march on CM House

The Saddar Cooperative Market has announced that they will march on the Chief Minister House for the rehabilitation of shopkeepers who were affected in the recent fire at the market.

The president of the market, Muhammad Feroz, made this announcement at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Friday. He said the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) had assured them of arranging a meeting with the Sindh chief minister Sindh by Monday.

However, he said that if their demands were not met, they would resort to agitation. “We will have two options — a protest at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) and march towards the Chief Minister House,” he added.

Before the press conference, the traders held a protest demanding compensation. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Aftab Qureshi and Khurram Sher Zaman were also present at the protest. The protesters lamented that in a span of 26 days, no government official had approached them for rehabilitation. They threatened that if their demands were not met, they would have no choice but to go for illegal ways of protest.

Feroz said the affected shopkeepers wanted the government to give them what they rightly deserved. “It has been one month since the fire happened and nothing concrete has happened for them [affected shopkeepers],” he asserted. If the KCCI made some efforts, he said, Rs200 million could be collected for the traders’ rehabilitation in a day. If Zubair Motiwala himself initiated the collection process, he could alone generate Rs300 million, Feroz maintained.

Complaining of apathetic attitude by the Pakistan Peoples Party, he said the federal government understood their pain. “PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari claims to be the son of the city. What kind of son is he who has not come to see us once,” Feroz remarked.

He pointed out how the affected shopkeepers were protesting peacefully for 27 days but to no avail. He said the Sindh government would be responsible if any law and order situation emerged.

The market president said they had estimated a Rs920 million loss and conveyed it to the KCCI. He asked the provincial government if the Saddar Cooperative Market was outside the ambit of Sindh. He claimed that the affected traders had contacted various leaders of the PPP but no one responded.