Business leaders complained Wednesday of losing millions of dollars to the government's novel way of containing protesters: by confiscating thousands of shipping containers, many still full of goods, to block roads.
Transport operators complained that up to 4,000 containers had been diverted from their usual route between Karachi and Islamabad to block the capital's roads this week, as opposition leader Imran Khan threatened a million-strong demonstration to lock down the government.
By Tuesday Khan had called the protest off, but the containers -- many carrying medicines, perishable goods and other costly cargo -- had not yet been returned.
"A great injustice is being done to us as authorities have seized more than 4,000 containers carrying goods," Chaudhry Saeed Iqbal, vice chairman of the Karachi-based Pakistan Transport Federation, told AFP.
Zafar Bakhtawri, vice president of the Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industries, estimated the losses at "millions" of dollars.
He pointed out that the move also brings factories, where storage space is limited when production cannot be shipped out, to a halt. Babar Chaudhry, a local transport operator, said he had to pay fines each time his shipments fall behind schedule. "We have been urging government and held several meetings with authorities... but so far they have not stopped this practice," Chaudhry told AFP.
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