KARACHI, May 8: The industrial production in three main industrial areas suffered 25-50 per cent losses owing to thin attendance of workers who failed to turn up because of violence in various parts of the city.
The violence was in retaliation to the killing of 14 persons in a suicide bomb attack in a mosque of Sindh Madersatul Islam on Friday.
Site industrial area turned out to be an exception where production activities remained quite normal and only 10 per cent fall in workers' attendance and production activities was registered.
However, supplies of finished products to the wholesale and retail markets from the industries coupled with procurement of raw materials from the market remained suspended throughout the day due to closure of majority of markets.
Contrary to these negative developments in the city, the export of goods to various foreign destinations remained unaffected despite thin movement of container and goods transport on the road.
An official in Export Examination at West Wharf said that the real impact of the Saturday situation would come on Monday. On Saturday, he said the department processed around 148 export documents almost equal to normal processing of documents in weak days. However, he said that these documents usually belonged to the consignments of Thursday and Wednesday.
An official in Export Examination at East Wharf said around 70 export documents were examined and working conditions remained normal. "No major flaw in work has been witnessed on Saturday," he said.
Assistant Collector, Customs Air Freight Unit, Export, Umer Shafiq said working conditions there were normal as 300-350 export documents were examined on Saturday.
Coming back to industrial activities, Federal B. Industrial area and North Karachi industrial area turned out to be main victims of the whole situation in the city. Vice Chairman of F.B. Area Association of Trade and Industry (FBATI), Idris Gigi said that industries suffered production losses in the range of 25-50 per cent because only morning shifts remained quite active and only 10 per cent drop in the attendance was registered. However, the afternoon shifts remained totally suspended as all the workers decided to go home after situation became tense in various vicinities of the area.
He said industrialists could not send their deliveries of finished goods to the markets specially in the afternoon.
Past chairman of FBATI, Farooq Bakalay said that only 50 per cent attendance had been recorded in the factories, thus affecting the production activities to the same tune. He said deliveries and receiving of raw materials also remained inactive. An estimated 250,000-300,000 are directly employed in the 2,500 different categories of industries in F.B. Area.
An industrialist in a North Karachi industrial area said that 50 per cent of workers opted to stay at home rather coming to the industries due to tension in the area. Around 150,000-200,000 people are directly and indirectly earning their livelihood in 2,500 small and medium size units.
The main reason of thin attendance of workers in North Karachi and F.B. Area was the violence at Sohrab Goth and Ancholi areas. At Sohrab Goth, a man was shot dead and seven others were injured when angry youths pelted stones at the shops at Sohrab Goth Super Highway demanding their closure. Some youths intercepted six vehicles on Rashid Minhas Road and around the vicinity of Sohrab Goth intersection and set them ablaze. Due to the violence, the Super Highway was closed for traffic for hours and the traffic, coming from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Aisha Manzil and North Karachi, was diverted to other alternative routes. Many workers of the afternoon shifts stayed at home while many morning workers decided to take early leave to reach their home.
Chairman Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI), Mian Zahid Hussain said that only 50 per cent of workers attended their respective industries, which resulted into massive production losses. Only in-house work had been done in the factories as outdoor works like delivery of goods and procurement of raw materials remained suspended throughout the day due to closure of all the markets. Besides, the industries had already been suffering production losses due to un-organised loadshedding by the KESC.
The chairman Site Association of Industry, Mohammad Nisar Sheikhani said that surprisingly workers' attendance and production activities in the Site areas remained normal and no major impact was seen in terms of production losses. However, local industries could not deliver the goods due to complete closure of main wholesale markets.
Past chairman of Site Association, Haroon Farooqi said the situation in Site area remained normal and only 10 per cent of workers remained absent. As a result of this, production activities suffered a paltry 10 per cent decline. Site area has a total of 2,400 industries in which 90 per cent are small and medium size. Site area has the highest number of direct employees of over 500,000 people. It provides Rs2 billion as revenue daily in shape of taxes, duties, wages and services goods.
President Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Riaz Ahmed Tata has deplored the Friday's terrorist attack on the mosque, saying that such inhuman act of brutal terrorism can only be carried out by paid professionals who are working for the enemies of Pakistan.
He said that acts of terrorism at regular intervals in Karachi was creating a sense of insecurity and uncertainty, thus affecting the business and investment climate.
Vice President, FPCCI, Haroon Rashid said that the brutal act is only meant to scare away prospective foreign investors in order to retard the progress and economic development of Pakistan.
He urged the government to make a full enquiry into the incident to identify the perpetrators of the crime and give them exemplary punishments.