Hardly any trade activity across Karachi

Heavy rains, followed by electricity breakdown on Tuesday brought trade activities to almost a total halt, as over 90 percent markets remained closed, said traders. They said that the three-day incessant rain paralysed business and trade activities in all majors markets, creating problems for common men, besides making commodities rather costlier.
"Rain and then electricity failure have disturbed trade activities in over 90 percent shopping centres, which remained shut in the metropolis," said Chairman of Alliance of Market Associations, Karachi, Atiq Mir. He said that the recent rain had also damaged the civic infrastructure in the residential and commercial areas.
As a result, while the customer preferred to remain indoors, the commercial centres closed earlier than the schedule timing. The trade activities in the market and shopping centres, which were already slow after the Saturday''s rain, came to a standstill on Tuesday, he said, adding that besides intermittent rains, frequent and long load-shedding added to the miseries of the people.
Liaquatabad, Paper Market, Nursery, Arambagh, Electronic Market, M. A Jinnah Road, Water Pump Market, Shahrah-e-Liaquat, Paposhnagar, Heyderi market and other major markets and shopping centres were completely closed, while shops in Bohri Bazaar, Tariq Road, Bahadurabad, Sadder, Clifton were partially open, he said.
"On Monday, business transaction was not more than rupees two million, which normally stands at Rs 1.5 billion per day in Karachi," he said.said former President of Karachi Electronic Dealers Association (Keda) Waheed Memon said in the electronic markets, the pace of trading activities were not different from other shopping centres in the city.
Rainwater inundated almost all streets and roads of the market, causing problems to the customers, especially pedestrians, he added. Attendance in factories and other business houses was thin as labour also faced severe hardships in reaching their workplaces, including markets and factories, due to unavailability of public transport.
Moreover, over 250 casualties due to electrocution, falling of hoardings and billboards during Saturday''s rain has created panic among general public, who avoided going to offices. As a result, attendance in private offices, particularly located on I.I Chundrigar Road and Sharea Faisal, remained thin.
Keeping in view the Met Office forecast of more rain till Friday, the traders, therefore, believed that trade activities would remain disturbed during the next three to four days, and hoped that full-fledged trading activities could get momentum by next week.
On the other hand, export process was also badly disturbed due to the non-availability of the work force in the industries, exporters said. They said during the last three days, productivity of export-oriented companies had been reduced due to the shortage of workforce and some orders had been delayed and if the rain stopped, then it might take a few more days to fulfil these orders.