LAHORE: Cricket remained a favourite pastime of shopkeepers during the shutdown in the city on the call of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Monday.

In Anarkali Bazaar, Karim Block Market in Iqbal Town and on Multan Road, many traders were seen playing cricket after closing their businesses.

Anarkali was the market where a majority of traders closed their businesses, either voluntarily or owing to lack of trust in police deputed there to protect their shops in case PTI activists resorted to violence.

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“What will we do if we return home as we cannot sit idle there. So, playing cricket seemed to be a better option to kill time,” says Arsahd, a shopkeeper, while batting in the main Anarkali Bazaar.

When asked why he closed his shop, he said it was better to sacrifice income for a day rather than putting the business at risk.

“Many traders didn’t come to the market after they decided to keep their shops closed voluntarily on Imran Khan’s call. There are also many others who reached the market to open their shops, but they couldn’t after they found police just playing silent spectators,” he said.

Another shopkeeper, Shahzad, who was fielding, said both sides (PTI and the government) should not have made the protest a matter of ego. “We don’t understand why they failed to resolve the issue. We appeal to the government that if it is unable to resolve the issues it must leave,” he said.

Similarly, on Multan Road too (Chowk Yatim Khan to Scheme Mor), the traders were playing cricket to kill time. Since Yatim Khana intersection was closed by the protesters for all sorts of traffic, a majority of shops were closed.

“It is better to keep our businesses closed than to trust the rulers. Though the PTI people didn’t threaten us, the traders decided on their own to keep their shops closed in view of absence of customers in the market,” Munawar, a shopkeeper, said.

The situation was not much different in Iqbal Town’s Karim Block market, one of the major garments markets in the city, where a number of shopkeepers were either sitting outside their shops reading newspapers or playing cricket.

“What should we do in a situation when the whole country seems to be heading towards a disaster,” Imran Shah, a vendor, deplored while reading newspaper. He said the government should negotiate with the PTI by involving leadership of other parties.

Published in Dawn December 16th , 2014