KARACHI: Amid sporadic incidents of violence, a strike call given by the Jamaat-i-Islami against K-Electric as well as water shortage affected daily life in the metropolis on Friday as most public transport remained off the roads and businesses closed particularly in the first half of the day.

However, city life returned to normality in the afternoon as the Karachi chief of the JI, Hafiz Naeemur Rahman, called off the strike and “appealed” to traders and transporters to resume their activities.

Random law and order incidents were witnessed in many localities early in the morning.

Law enforcers briefly detain some activists in Malir

JI workers took to the streets in different city areas, burnt tyres and blocked roads by staging sit-ins In one such incident, dozens of protesters staged a sit-on on a Malir road near the Kala Board bus stop connecting the National Highway with Sharea Faisal. Traffic remained suspended on the key link for a few hours. However, the road was opened for vehicular traffic after police and Rangers intervened.

Also, key traffic links in Orangi Town were also blocked as protesters lit bonfires on main roads forcing suspension of vehicular traffic.

Police took many JI workers into custody, but released them later.

A spokesman for the Karachi Transport Ittehad said that a majority of bus operators kept their vehicles off the roads in the first half of the day as the KTI extended its support to the JI strike call.

Shops in major business centres, which usually start business after Friday prayers in the afternoon, resumed activities in the second half of the day.

Speaking at a press conference at its Idara Noor-i-Haq headquarters, Hafiz Naeem called off the strike.

Terming the strike successful, he announced that his party would stage a sit-in outside the head office of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board in its second phase of the protest campaign.

“We remained peaceful and Karachi is witness to those violent days when traders and transporters were threatened to keep their business closed only for political reasons,” he said. “In our case police assaulted and arrested our workers who were trying to make the strike effective while convincing people in a peaceful manner. The efforts of our workers are commendable and now we are going to expand the scope of our protest.”

He said that the last visit of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to Karachi had failed to bring any improvement in the performance of K-Electric. He also criticised the PM for “supporting” the power utility by ordering the Sui Southern Gas Company to restore gas supply to KE.

“We are not going to abandon this city and after the effective protest campaign against K-Electric, we are expanding this movement. In the next phase we will stage a sit-in outside the KWSB headquarters on main Sharea Faisal which has been turned into an office of a political party, which despite enjoying mandate of the city is depriving the people of Karachi of their basic facilities,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2018