All Karachi Tajir Ittehad (AKTI) on Monday announced that it will continue business activities at all markets in the last week of the year, as usual. It asked the government to relax the provision of Shop Act for markets situated in the violence-hit areas of the city. "All shopping centres of the city will continue their trade activities from December 24, Monday to December 29, Saturday without any closure," said AKTI Chairman Atiq Mir.
He said violence in December has scaled down trade and commercial activities in the city and the current week, which is also the last week of the year, hence traders have decided to avoid closures. "Violence and vandalism which largely remain spontaneous, badly affect the trade and business activities in the city, therefore we want the government to cooperate with businessmen," he said.
In a meeting, traders associated with AKTI have decided to continue their businesses without any closure and urged the government not to force closures on the markets. Traders also warned the government that "any breach of violence in the city will be considered the government negligence," he added.
He said about 80 percent of business centres are unable to cope with the rising financial problems to pay off their expenses. "In such circumstances, how could a trader go on holidays at the end of the year," he asked. He slammed the government for announcing seven days of public holidays out of total nine days by the end of the current year, saying "the government provides its subservient officials a picnic like opportunity," he maintained.
Atiq Mir said the government instead of providing relief to the nation, has rather created problems for nearly 2.5 million daily wage workers of the city. "The long-holiday week will badly affect the livelihood of daily wage earners whose income depends on availability of jobs," he said.
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