KARACHI, May 14: Country’s exports came to a grinding halt since Saturday when rival political groups clashed in the port city. Both the ports — Qasim and Karachi — could not operate normally due to shortage of staff and absence of transport which could bring export consignments from industrial areas to the ports.
The customs also could not operate normally as there was a shortage of staff and hardly any Bill of Lading was entered. However, the major factor for crippling of exports was non-availability of transport which disappeared from roads on Friday evening. Some transporters complained that they had to take their vehicles off the roads because of fear of being impounded by the police.
Consequently, a large number of export consignments remained within the industrial units where activity also slowed down to a very low level owing to thin attendance of workers who could not reach their workplaces in the absence of public transport as Monday was observed as a protest day.
Despite the fact that ships continued to anchor and sail out of the ports and up to some extent some cargo handling was also carried out but in the absence of availability of export cargo, ships had to leave without loading.
A KPT spokesman told Dawn that internal working of the port remained normal as the port is now mostly mechanised. However, he said with the availability of Dock Labour, the Karachi Port had an advantage of maintaining its manual handling as well.
According to Qasim Port spokesman, whereas activity at the Qasim terminal remained normal owing to mechanised process, the other port activity related to manual handing totally came to a halt in the absence of labour.
Unlike dock labour in the KPT, the Qasim port has private labour to handle cargo. The spokesman said that on Monday one ship sailed out of the port and four were given berths.
On Sunday, three sailed out and three were given berths. However, most of the ships were container carriers or oil tankers. Consequently, other port activity and manual cargo handling remained totally at a halt.
Despite the fact the B/L entries and clearance of goods could be made online, the major problem confronting the exporters and importer was non-avail-ability of transport which could not bring and carry out cargo from the ports.
As a result of turmoil and precarious law and order situation for the last three days, the country’s economy suffered billions of rupees loss in term industrial production as well as exports.
The banking services also remained totally closed and the attendance of customs staff was very thin at both the ports.
Chairman, Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) Masood Naqi, told Dawn that around Rs2 billion production loss per day is suffered by the industry in his area where such strategic units, like National Refinery and other important setups, are functioning. He said around Rs250 million daily loss in revenue is suffered by the national exchequer from non-functioning of industry in Korangi where around 3,500 units are in production of exports goods of a large varieties.
Most of the exporters were complaining that in order to save their export contracts, they will have to air-lift some of their consignments while others said that they will either have to face penalty or cancellation of orders.
Many exporters complained that on Monday, they missed a shipping schedule and will now have to wait for a week.
About half a dozen industrial areas of the city remained paralysed in the absence of transport and poor attendance of workers.
The industry which largely depends on daily wages could not operate at its full production level as workers could not reach their workplaces in the absence of public transport and total closure of trade and business activity.
