KARACHI, Oct 10: As the Saturday’s earthquake claimed thousands of lives in northern and other parts of Pakistan, its tremors have also been felt in distant Karachi where a sizable workforce belonging to the affected areas has either returned home or in the process of going back.
Workforce and labour in the construction industry, which employs people mostly from Mansehra, Muzaffarbad, Abbottabad and other parts of the Northern Areas, have returned either to mourn the death of the loved ones or locate their families.
“We have suspended all construction activities from Monday till Wednesday, as all the workers belonging to the quake-hit areas have left for their home,” Association of Builders and Developers’ former chairman Babar Mirza Chughtai said.
He claimed that the construction activities in the ongoing 100-150 projects, which had been running swiftly ahead of the Saturday’s earthquake, had now come to a virtual standstill owing to absence of the workforce. “We are now engaged in the fund-raising campaign to arrange over Rs10 million for the quake victims,” he added.
It could not be known how much actual workforce is engaged in the construction activities in Karachi, but former ABAD vice-chairman Salim Zaki estimates the workers hailing from the quake-affected areas between 15,000 and 20,000.
Besides construction activities, the people from these areas are also engaged in the transport sector of Karachi as drivers and conductors of public and private buses, mini-buses, trucks, rickshaws, taxi, etc. “Hundreds of drivers and conductors belonging to the affected areas have also returned home,” Karachi Transport Itehad (KTI) President Syed Irshad Hussain Bukhari said without quantifying the actual numbers.
In the entire city’s transport sector, 35-40 per cent drivers and conductors belong to Hazara, Sarhad and Azad Kashmir. “We have already made arrangements so that the movement of transport remains unaffected,” Mr Bukhari said, adding that all the buses and mini-buses were normally plying the roads.
Haji Mohammad Iqbal, chief coordinator, supreme council, All Pakistan Transporters, said that 80 per cent of drivers and conductors, hailing from Hazara and Mansehra, had gone back to their homeland after the earthquake. Even the permanent staffers had returned to their villages, he added.
“The intercity movement of buses has shrunk by around 20-30 per cent owing to absence of drivers and conductors,” he said, adding that not only the intercity movement of buses from Karachi to the upcountry had been affected, but the transport movement from the quake-affected areas to other parts of the country had also been hit severely.
COMMODITY MARKETS: The people are not only buying essential commodities for Ramazan but also for relief centres set up by the government and the private sector. So far wholesale and retail markets have not felt any impact relating to shortage of any commodities because of huge lifting for the holy month.
Karachi Wholesale Grocers Association (KWGA) adviser Anis Majeed said that the people were mostly buying rice, pulses, tea, sugar and powdered milk from the wholesale market for the quake victims. “It is not going to make any negative impact on prices, as the markets have enough stocks to handle such a situation,” he said.
“People (retailers and market people) have already made bulk buying ahead of Ramazan. There is no panic in the markets and prices are under control,” he said.
In the New Subzi Mandi (Super Highway), only those workers who belong to Hazara and Kashmir have gone back after the quake.
Falahi Anjuman Wholesale Vegetable Market vice-president Haji Alimuddin said that some 15 per cent of the workforce in the vegetable side hailing from Hazara had returned to their villages.
He said there was no bottleneck in the arrival of trucks, loaded with fruits and vegetables, from the upcountry. As a result, the wholesale prices of vegetable have either been intact or falling down because of ample stocks in the market.
Karachi Retail Grocers Group (KRGG) General-Secretary Farid Qureishi said that people are lifting pulses, rice, biscuit, tea, flour, etc., in bulk from the markets for donation to the earthquake victims.
He said that the recent surge in demand had not created any shortage of essential items in the markets so far. The prices are also pegged to the previous levels.
As only five Rozas have passed, majority of the Eid shopping markets remains closed for at least a week in the nights because of Taraveeh. Traders will open the markets in a day or two.
Sources said that the markets in the morning and afternoon lacked normal buying interest. There is not much rush because of sentimental human angle attached to the Saturday’s national tragedy.
