LAHORE: The government action to lock down Punjab to stop Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) supporters from heading to Lahore started biting the industry across the province as it disrupted the local supply chain as well as delayed export shipments.

The Shahbaz Sharif government had used large containers to block highways to bar PAT workers from reaching Lahore from the across the province to participate in its Sunday protest, making travel and cargo movement from one city to another almost impossible.

“There has been no cargo movement from or to any city in Punjab for the last couple of days. Police have impounded tens of containers, many of them loaded with explosive chemicals, to block highways in the province as well as roads in Lahore to immobilise protestors; others are stranded on the highways,” noted Aftab Vohra, a business leader who runs a customs clearing company in Lahore.

“This situation is resulting in shortage of imported raw material for the local industry and delaying export shipments,” he added.

The businessmen said they were really worried about the situation in the province as a consequence of violent clashes in different parts and the blockade of travel and cargo movement.

“I came to Lahore for a wedding on Thursday but couldn’t return home because all the roads to Sialkot were totally jammed,” said Ijaz Khokhar, a sportswear exporter from the border city and a top leader of the Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

“Our foreign buyers are worried about growing political uncertainty in the country. They believe that we may not be able to ship their orders on time. This isn’t good for foreign trade,” he said, adding the government had impounded almost every 40ft container, loaded and empty both, from dry ports in the province.

A marketing manager of a ready-to-eat poultry products supplier told Dawn his firm had to cut off fresh supplies outside Lahore because of blockade of highways. “That is not all. We are also facing problems in supplying our products to some parts in Lahore because of road blockade as well as petrol shortage in the city.”

It is difficult to calculate tangible losses to the industry in Punjab because of the anticipated delay in export shipments and shortages of raw materials to the manufacturers but the prevailing situation will certainly scare away their foreign buyers. “If the uncertain conditions prolong for long, we will lose a lot of international business. That will be unfortunate,” Khokhar noted.

M.I. Khurram, a major knitwear exporter, said if the situation did not improve in a day or two he and many other exporters would be forced to airlift their export orders at a much higher cost to meet the deadline of their buyers.

“The industry in Punjab was already facing a severe energy crunch – 11 hours of power shutdown and 18 hours of gas cuts a day. Now this new situation is threatening to cause more factories to close down,” he said.

Though a police announcement said on Saturday they had started removing the containers from highways to ease movement across the province, exporters said they would not be able to load and ship their export cargo to Karachi port before Tuesday.

“By the time our cargo reaches the port we would have lost at least four days,” Khurram said.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2014