KARACHI: The continuous wave of terror and violence has badly affected economic activities in the city causing losses of billions of rupees to the traders, Daily Times found out on Saturday.
Violence in the city, which started from Friday night paralysed the whole city and even affected the interior province as well. Fears of further deterioration in the city halted business activities.
Chairman North Karachi Association of Trade and Industry (NKATI) Younus Khamisani while talking to Daily Times said that a city from where 80 percent of exports of various products are made and generate about 70 percent of the country’s total revenue should not be left at the mercy of political groups.
“It seems that the government has no interest in the city’s problems and has left its traders’ community helpless,” he complained and said that the Sindh government is doing nothing to ensure peaceful businesses environment for a better economy.
He said that NKATI has almost 2,000 industrial units that were badly affected by the strike, as less than 40 percent labour and workers could reach factories and the industrial zone had to suffer a loss of Rs 350 million to Rs 400 million on account of the strike.
“This was a total unexpected strike which not only hit the economic activities of the city, but largely affected that of interior Sindh as well,” member of managing committee of Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) Tariq Malik said. He said that KATI remained paralysed during the whole day, as 70 percent workers were not able to reach their industrial units and the industrial zone had to face substantial losses in terms of production.
President Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry Anjum Nisar said that this was the 10th day since July 1, 2008 that the economic activities in the city remained paralysed, and no production was observed during these days in the city.
He said that since July 2008 the country has faced a loss of about Rs 18 billion on account of taxes to the federal government, however almost Rs 25 billion to Rs 30 billion losses were reported in terms of production losses only from Karachi during these days.
Many traders face severe problems of supplying their consignments due to unavailability of transport and absence of peace in the city, besides rampant electricity load shedding has crippled the industrial production, he said.
A single day closure inflicts billions of rupees losses on the country’s exchequer, he said, adding that the country cannot afford such an unserious attitude towards trade and industry. He also criticised the government for not taking appropriate measures to ensure uninterrupted power supply to industries and residents of the city.
Chairman of Alliance of Markets Association (AMA), Muhammad Atiq Mir said that only stable political government could resolve the country’s problems, while the PPP-led government has proved a failure since forming the government.
About 25-30 percent of retrenchment has taken place in small markets in the wake of declining trade activities because of the government’s unfriendly business approach from the first day in the office, he said, adding that any rise in unemployment is likely to further collapse the existing peace in the country.
