KARACHI: All Pakistan Organisation of Small Traders and Cottage Industries Karachi has demanded an end to what it called cruel and unannounced load-shedding in the city markets and called for uninterrupted electricity supply during business hours.
President Mehmood Hamid said that the electricity cuts had crippled the business across the city’s markets which had hit exceptionally hard the Babar Market B-2 where traders received power for only two hours during trading time. He slammed K-Electric as “incompetent”, saying that such actions were harmful to the economy and to traders, and would not be tolerated.
He was speaking at a meeting of traders with the newly elected leadership at Babar Market in Landhi on Thursday. Newly elected Babar Market President Sohail Khan, General Secretary Faisal Ansari, Senior Joint Secretary Shehzad Ansari and Senior Vice President Khalid Ansari also addressed the gathering, as did Musarrat Ansari, president of the Small Traders Organisation’s Korangi district chapter, and former Babar Market president Syed Rashid Ali Shah.
Hamid praised the market leadership for its work on behalf of traders. He said the newly elected office-bearers had begun solving the market’s problems immediately after their election. Through the efforts of President Sohail Khan, General Secretary Faisal Ansari, Senior Vice President Khalid Ansari and Shehzad Ansari, he said, encroachments in Babar Market had been brought under control and shoppers had been given easier access. Shoppers, especially women, had thanked the new leadership, he said. Such steps, he added, promote business.
One of the speakers said the leadership was committed to serving people selflessly, the spirit in which they had contested the election, and would continue in the same way after winning. General Secretary Faisal Ansari said traders had long been aware of the Small Traders’ work. He said Omar Celia had served traders greatly and given small traders a strong platform. He said small traders still value the organisation’s guidance and services, and that the market would continue to cooperate with it on matters of trader interest.
Senior Joint Secretary Shehzad Ansari said the leadership’s aim was to serve traders without discrimination, and that it was working toward that with full dedication and would continue to do so. Musarrat Ansari, the newly elected president of the Small Traders Organisation’s Korangi district, congratulated the Babar Market traders on their success and praised their efforts to resolve trader problems. He assured them of the organisation’s full support.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026