Karachi: The country’s financial hub deprived of about Rs370 billion in 2010 due to poor law and order situation while thousands of daily-wage workers also lost their livelihood because of strikes and the subsequent days of mourning.
Five bloody waves of target killings in different months of the year, two bomb blasts and 21 strike calls made by different political and religious parties paralysed the city for more than 37 days during 2010, according to data provided by the members of the business community.
The five different waves of targeted killings forced the traders to shut their businesses for 14 days, causing an estimated loss of Rs140 billion.
The 21 strike calls that were made by different political and religious parties on different issues, including bomb blasts, target killings and mourning periods made in-roads amounting to losses to the tune of Rs210 billion.
Separately, two strike calls by the business community caused loss of Rs5 billion. These strikes were not part of the calls given by transporters and the business community against the power crisis.
Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Saeed Shafeeq told The News Tribe that “the city suffers a single-day loss of Rs10 billion in view of production losses, suspension in sales and exports, demurrage at ports on imported goods, loss of perishable goods, daily wage earners, non-salary disbursement, transportation of goods, non-plying of public transport, sale losses to shop owners and government revenues while there are a lot of invisible losses also.”
Due to frequent suspension in business activities and in container movement, no shipments could be made, which resulted in loss of billions of rupees to exporters.
Production in all industrial areas had come to a halt and all markets and shopping centres had remained completely closed for three days following the killing of MPA Syed Raza Haider of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement on August 2.
Traders said in case the situation would not improve in 2011, the life of two million daily-wage earners would severely be affected.
“Around 3.5 million salaried-class people working in different private firms, industrial units, shops etc., failed to withdraw their salaries during the days the city saw a wave of violence or transporters refused to run their vehicles,” the traders said.
Kati has a total of 4,500 factories while FB Area Association of Trade and Industry (FBATI) has 2,000 units, Site Association of Industry has 3,500 units and 2,000 small and medium units are working in the city. Overall more than 22,000 units are working in Karachi.
The Karachi Wholesalers’ Grocers Association (KWGA), for instance, reported 95 per cent closure of the entire wholesale activities during the strikes, which, according to KWGA, means “trading losses running into billions.”
On the other hand while talking to this scribe, the traders also claimed that the Landhi Industrial Area, Super Highway Industrial Area, North Karachi, SITE industrial unit under the banner of Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) had observed the strikes against the electricity and gas loadshedding. They said that FPCCI had endorsed the call for strike as persistent energy shortages are crippling the industry and fast eroding its competitive advantage.
They said for 12 days, the industries of Karachi remained shutdown because the energy crises had been adding substantially to the cost of doing business and making them uncompetitive in international market.
They said even one-day strike costs Rs10 billion losses as a whole, while the daily wages workers bear the loss of their one-day income which also adds to their woes.
They said to boost industrial output and export, the industry needed uninterrupted supply of gas and electricity. They claimed that 90 per cent small and medium enterprises (SMEs) had suffered massive production losses because of unavailability of power.
Likewise, transporters have reported around 40 per cent less revenue on the one day of the strike as they preferred to stay away from the roads, especially, in the first half of the day because no one was quite sure about what might happen. This, in turn, had disrupted production schedules in almost all industrial areas across the city where workers could not make it owing to the absence of public transport.
Attached to all these tales of massive losses are untold tales of unquantifiable losses suffered by individual wage-earners for the day, and on every single day when a strike is called by one segment or the other of society.–By MT Habib
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