KARACHI: “Jackson Market is known to offer cheaper electrical appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners. That is why it has remained popular with people from the lower-middle class,” says Nasir Bangash as he works on fixing a minor issue with a Japanese fridge that seems to be in mint condition otherwise.

Most of the appliances being sold at this market in Keamari are second-hand and reconditioned pieces taken out from ships. That is also why the air conditioners are rather small, of around 0.75 ton, perfect for ship cabins. They also resemble the regular split ACs but are actually small window-types. There are also portable ACs on sale here, some of which look like computer CPUs.

“You can easily get a fridge as big as this one,” says Bangash pointing to the one he is repairing, “for half the price of a new one here. This is a no-frost fridge that will cost you around Rs90,000 if you buy it new. But here I am asking only Rs45,000 for it.”

He adds: “Similarly, an AC will cost you around Rs13,000 or less.”

Most shop owners at Jackson Market are not comfortable answering questions. Requesting anonymity they explain that the market is some 35 years old. Earlier, it was known as a market that sold second-hand appliances from ships. But now though most items on sale here are from ships, they reach the market though “Afghan transit”, they say. It means that they are smuggled in. But everything has not been smuggled in as they also buy old electronic appliances cheap from Saddar to repair and resell here.

Shafqat Jadoon, whose small shop is full of the small ACs, also sells voltage converters or step-down transformers to step down the voltage from 220v to 110v as the local frequency of power supply is at 220v at 50Hz while the ACs usually run on 110v at 60Hz. “Yes, you have to adjust certain things but then also look at the quality you are getting. They have pure copper coils inside and would last you several seasons,” he says.

The shops at Jackson Market are also not consistent about what they sell. “If you come here during the winter, I’ll be selling digital deck for cars and homes,” says Jadoon.

There are also reconditioned racing bicycles available here, and old cameras, too. “The bikes can also be repaired at the market and can be bought for as cheap as Rs6,000 to as high as Rs16,000,” says Saleem Baloch, who sells old bicycles at Jackson Market.

Meanwhile, Omar Daraz, who has been running an AC and refrigerator repair shop here for 27 years now, says that earlier everyone wanted to come to Jackson Market to shop as it suited their pockets but now the road to this place is always blocked by heavy traffic. “Customers are discouraged from coming here because of the congested road. It takes them too long to reach here,” he explains.

“You see up ahead there is the oil terminal, the KPT Seaport and the China Seaport, too, now. The traffic jams start from Tower,” he says. “This is because while making the seaports no one is thinking about making more roadways.”

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2017