KARACHI: In a strong message reflecting their anger and warning for more such moves in the days to come, Karachi traders largely kept their businesses closed on Friday in protest against the inflated electricity bills, forcing the Sindh governor to intervene and make a promise to talk to the interim government in the Centre for some immediate relief in power bills.

The commercial districts, major markets and almost all shopping centres in the city remained closed in protest.

The ‘shutter down like strike’ called by traders affected the daily business activities, but the industrial operation and production activities remained unaffected.

The business community described the shutdown as a ‘unanimous response’ from the Karachi’s business community and vowed that they would not accept the current state of power tariff structures.

In a ‘unanimous response’, business community rejects current state of power tariff structure; city braces for today’s strike by JI

The Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI)’s support for the strike call further strengthened the move and converted it into a massive response from the traders who stayed away from regular activities on Friday.

The KCCI said they stood by with traders for their “justified grievances”, though their industrial activities weren’t affected by the closure of regular business in the city.

“The markets and business centres remained closed and we while representing their sentiments contacted the Sindh governor [Kamran Khan Tessori],” said KCCI president Tariq Yusuf.

“He’s returning [from London] tonight [Friday]. He has promised that he would fly to Islamabad tomorrow [Saturday] to take up this matter with the authorities. With such assurances, we hope there would be a kind of relief.”

He referred to more than 60 per cent variables added in the inflated power bills with the actual price of electricity that had made the living of a common man and production cost of businesses totally unaffordable.

“We haven’t demanded any cut or relief in the actual price of the electricity. We have just asked them to review these variables, which are charging so much under different accounts,” said the KCCI president.

The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI), on the other hand, was concerned that the government had no clue as to what would be the socioeconomic repercussions of the third massive hike in petroleum prices seeing the inflationary pressures to mount beyond the control of any sector or industry to absorb.

“Industrial shut downs; decline in exports; dwindling domestic demand; social unrest; unemployment and non-existent economic growth will follow,” warned FPCCI president Irfan Iqbal Sheikh in a statement.

After the “successful strike”, the city braces for another shutdown on Saturday on countrywide call by the Jamaat-i-Islami against the inflated power bills and recent wave of inflation.

The party also warned the caretaker government not to take any ‘unconstitutional route’ to foil the strike call.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2023