No response to strike call in Karachi

Karachiites ignored the strike call for Friday given by Muttahida-Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and PML (N), with visible apathy. The decision for strike was taken by the PML (N) much before convening the All Parties Conference on Thursday.
Which enraged the PPP, ANP, Sunni Tehrik and genuine transporters forcing them to distance themselves from the meeting, leaving the PML (N) and the MMA to handle the strike themselves. Almost all the shops, offices and market places remained open and besides private cars, all transport plyed on the roads as usual.
There was no sign of any protest demonstrations anywhere and the city life remained undisturbed. The dismal failure of the strike sends a message to the political parties that people are in no mood to agitate.
Even otherwise it has been observed that if the element of fear is taken out, the chances of shutdown would go unheeded. Shopkeepers and transporters, per force, suspend their normal activities to avoid loss of property by the agitators who indulge in arson and plunder to send a message to others to follow their dictate. Since the City Nazim had assured full security cover to the transporters, vehicles moved on their designated routes with ease and comfort.
A similar situation had arisen last month when a three-day strike call from May 25 to May 27, was given by Pakistan Action Committee Loya Jirga but had to be postponed because it was felt by the elders that such moves only bring misery for the poor. It was realised, and rightly so, that the Loya Jirga call would have hurt the Pakhtuns most. City Nazim, Mustafa Kamal at his press conference recently said that 80 percent of the contractors working for the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) on different projects are Pakhtuns.
It is a known fact that Pakhtuns are mostly daily-wage earners, whether working in industry, on high-rise building projects or road construction or transport. The mini-bus drivers and conductors are mostly Pakhtuns besides rickshaw drivers and mini-cab drivers and pushcart fruit sellers.
Strikes hit the deprived class, they loose daily earnings and suffer for no fault of theirs. People from this class when approached for reaction expressed disenchantment with the strike calls usually given from the cosy drawing rooms or meeting halls.
Being the port city, Karachi attracts people from all the four provinces and Azad Kashmir who come here in search of jobs and make good money to raise their families. Generally speaking people are getting sick and tired of the strike calls, processions and rallies which not only disturb the routine life cycle but also more often than not result in hooliganism and loss of lives and property.
In the ultimate analysis, it is the rags which bear the entire wrath while the affluent enjoy at their cost. Those who have motives, draw advantage from the sufferings of the poor. After all who gains out of the strike calls and agitation? The 'haves' and not the 'have nots,' a citizen lamented.