LAHORE, Feb 28: Paper merchants observed a token strike here on Monday to protest against government's apathy towards arbitrary increase in prices of paper by the mills during the past 20 days.

Paper merchants kept their shops on Ganpat Road closed till 2pm and staged a demonstration to condemn the unjustified price hike. Urdu Bazaar traders also observed strike to express solidarity with the paper merchants and participated in their demonstration.

Later, All Pakistan Paper Merchants Association (Northern Circle) vice-chairman, Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Paper and Board Committee chairman Khamas Saeed and other leaders addressed a press conference at the Lahore Press Club.

They said that the mills had quietly raised paper prices up to Rs12,000 per ton within the past three weeks without assigning any reason. Prices of textbooks and exercise books were expected to go up by 25 to 30 per cent as a result.

The mills, they said, had raised the prices of 68 and 80 grams paper from Rs51,000 and Rs49,000 per ton to Rs57,000 and Rs55,000 per ton, respectively. The prices of 55 grams paper had been raised from Rs41,000 per ton to Rs49,000 per ton. Mandhiali paper price had been increased from Rs33,000 to Rs45,000 per ton.

They criticized the government for its failure to take notice of the arbitrary increase in paper prices by the mills before the start of the new academic year to make big profits in the contracts for supplying paper for textbooks printing. The mills were also evading taxes by getting several truckloads of paper cleared against every voucher for a single truckload, they added.