The Awami National Party's (ANP) wheel-jam strike against the increasing electricity load shedding and workers' retrenchment plan of KESC left the city fully shut with no business and commercial activities on Friday, inflicting about Rs 2 billion losses on traders.
ANP's strike call received huge response from political and religious parties and transporters and some trade organisations in the city, aimed at pressing KESC management to stop days-long electricity load shedding, and warning the company to refrain from executing employees' retrenchment plan.
Public transport was off the roads, which disconnected the road communication across the city, forcing the dependent commuters to stay at home, while supply of essential commodities like grain, fruit and vegetable from major markets to retail end also remained suspended.
Almost all major markets remained closed, except a few in the posh Clifton and Tariq Road markets, Chairman All Karachi Tajir Ittehad Muhammad Atiq told Business Recorder. He said the traders, despite opposing strike in the city, largely supported the cause of the political parties' move and deliberately kept closed their business. He said that traders did not want to become part of political parties' fight on the KESC issue, as some were supporting the company and others were opposing.
"Traders are fully impartial to what is happening politically in the city," he said, adding that the government should seek a permanent solution to 4,500 KESC workers' retrenchment and unabated power outages in the city. He said that one-day trade suspension in the city caused at least Rs 2 billion losses to the traders and the losses which national exchequer suffered were in addition. He said: "The strike was so successful that crippled trade and business activities in the city".