CHITRAL, Feb 24: Routine life in this northern district headquarters city came to a grinding halt as shopkeepers and hotel owners pulled down shutters in protest against what they termed the failure of district and provincial governments to solve their problems.

The shopkeepers gathered at Atalique Chowk which turned into a protest rally addressed by the president of the Tajir Union, Habib Hussain Mughal, and others. They castigated the provincial government for its failure to provide basic civic amenities to the people in the city.

Wrong policies pursued by the government, they said, had given birth to unbearable price hike in the district. They further said that the traders community had given a deadline of one month to the government for the solution of their problems which included abolition of the harsh taxes imposed by the district government, provision of special funds for the cleanliness of the bazar area, construction of the much delayed additional carriageway to allay the rush of traffic on the bazaar, etc.

At the end of the rally, the union president announced to call off the strike, giving March 5 as a deadline for the solution of the traders' problems, failing which, he added, they would go on an indefinite strike.