THE country’s trading community appears to be somewhat distinct from manufacturers, farmers, transporters, bankers, private office workers and government employees while it shares common values with other economic agents.

Traders are highly industrious next to none. They stand out in the business community for being deeply religious, and like the landed gentry adamant to stay invisible on national data base, operating generally outside the tax radar. Social activism, rarely seen in other segments of business, gives them a loud voice.

Seizing the business opportunities offered and using the right skill set and hard work, the ambitious trading community is rapidly expanding the country’s wholesale and retail sector.

But the community is dead opposed to the idea of formal business, as reinforced by the traders’ response to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s Tax Amnesty Scheme which targeted to bring 1m into the tax net, but succeeded in registering only 350 filers by its earlier Feb 29 deadline. The last date of availing the scheme was extended, though the government’s hopes to significantly expand the tax net had dashed.

Recently the trading community spoke its mind once again. It reacted to the execution of Mumtaz Qadri last week by closing down retail markets. Qadri, an Elite Force commando, killed Punjab Governor Salman Taseer on Jan 4, 2011 for publicly speaking against the deficiencies in Blasphemy Law.

Former governor SBP Salim Raza emphasised the need for credible data for better insight into collective psyche and preferences of various segments for effective governance. “Who can forget the role of bazaars of Karachi and Lahore in the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) movement in 1970s that culminated in Gen Zia’s rule,” he remarked, recalling efforts to make Pakistan Bureau of Statistics independent and autonomous.

Dr Nadeem Javed, Chief Economist Planning Commission, found the question of peculiar behaviour of the trading community both intriguing and relevant. “There is an ongoing discussion in our circles on social behaviour, social engineering and cultural technology to address the challenge of social fragmentation. Yes, data is crucial and we are trying to initiate exercises to fill in the gaps in data coverage”.

“I have no ready answer but it is a fresh angle that I would like to investigate,” he said over phone.

Pakistan Business Council CEO Ehsan Malik contested eight million figure projected by a market leader to express the numerical strength of shopkeepers. “The retail and wholesale segments are largely informal so ready data is not available, but based on my experience at Unilever and access to multiple reports of market research companies, the number at best can be stretched to one million. I think the 8m number is a figment of traders’ imagination. Why do traders behave differently is hard to guess but probably it is out of fear”, he said.

Last Monday after the news about Mumtaz Qadri’s hanging broke out, the religious parties protested at several places, but the business and industrial activities were not disrupted except for the retail markets. All units in major industrial estates were operating normal, transporters opted to ply vehicles, banks were open, construction work progressed normally and offices were functional. In the burial congregation the next day, traders were the single largest business segment that converged in Rawalpindi.

“The market closure on Monday was a mark of protest for dodging the family and executing a man of principles. The strike was a voluntary reaction to injustice meted out to a man who did what any faithful could do: defend his faith at any cost,” Amin Khatri, a shop owner in the medicine market on M.A. Jinnah Road told Dawn.

“I regret for not being able to attend the burial. I did try but all flights were heavily booked and there was no other way to reach Rawalpindi on time. At least 250 people from this block of the market went to attend Qadri’s funeral.

Farooq Memon, a trader in the cloth market, criticised leaders of market associations who misrepresented the community.

Many shopkeepers interviewed in various markets had no answer to the question as to why there was no visible reaction from the industrial sector, farmers, transporters and the professional community. They did mention lawyers of Punjab who endorsed their position and participated in their activities beside the country’s religious parties.

According to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2014-15 ‘retail and wholesale’ business makes up for the biggest single category of 31pc of the service sector, having a whooping 18.3pc share in GDP. It is followed by transport, storage and communication, finance and insurance, making up 22.7pc of services sector and contributing 13.4pc in the GDP Anjuman-e-Tajiran, Karachi President Rafique Jadoon blamed the lack of security and institutional support to shopkeepers for the haste with which they pulled their shutters down. “We are numerically large but individually insecure. There are 8m shops in Pakistan if you include makeshift ‘khokas’. For us closure on a working day means net loss. There might be exceptions but the majority was forced into closure on Monday and pulled up shutters as soon as protests subsided,” he said.

Atique-ur-Rehman, Director General Domestic Commerce, Federal Ministry of Commerce, was happy for absence of sectarian tension over the recent incident. “It is good that protests were peaceful. Your question is difficult. The data of sectoral contribution is too generalised and insufficient for meaningful research.”

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, March 7th, 2016