POL products’, power and commodity price hike: Traders threaten two-day countrywide strike

KARACHI: Traders on Wednesday staged another protest, reiterating demand for the withdrawal of POL products’, power and commodity price hike.

The second protest demonstration as part of "the livelihood protection movement" held at the city's Regal Chowk in downtown, which hundreds of traders attended, seeking reversal of the fresh hike of fuel oil and power prices.

The angry traders, who threatened the government of a two-day countrywide strike, chanted shouts against the K-Electric, saying that the government should take back the fresh increase.

They said that the government has made it even unviable for them to carry on businesses with a huge hike in petrol and electricity rates. They also announced to reject the K-Electric "fraud" bills and stop paying them in protest.

"Until the government accepts our demands, the livelihood protection movement will continue," Rizwan Irfan, Chairman Karachi Electronics Dealers Association told the protestors.

He said that the traders have met with the prime minister and presented their demands for the withdrawal of the new increase and restoration of order in the city.

"Businesses have become "unviable and impossible" for traders after the fresh hike," President Organization of Small Traders and Cottage Industry Karachi chapter, Mehmood Hamid said.

He asked the tradesmen to stay ready for a countrywide two-day strike or a march towards Islamabad, soon, calling the electricity bills "fraud".

He asserted that traders will thwart any action which was aimed at dismantling markets power supply lines.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023