On Saturday, the second day of mourning of the killing of Benazir Bhutto, the entire city of Karachi remained closed, including private clinics, hospitals and drugstores which created hardships for people on medication.
Those who were on lifesaving drugs, who had met with accidents, who fell ill due to climatic changes, were all had to suffer the shutter-down situation from Thursday evening till Saturday night.
Major hospitals, both in public and private sectors, are limited in numbers and are insufficient to cater to the needs of the people living away from these hospitals.
In the absence of transport, sick people in need of hospital care could not be shifted to hospitals. Those who had the facility of personal transport were perforce forced to remain indoors for fear of hooliganism and acts of terrorism. Even ambulances were not freely available for shifting of patients to hospitals.
Sunday, being the third day of the mourning, is expected to remain closed for all business activities.
Since there was no transport in the streets, and gas stations were also closed, an extensive visit of the city was not possible, but whatever little could be surveyed showed that shops of all kinds were closed.
There was acute shortage of baby food including milk. Bakeries in small residential areas, which had tried to operate from their windows and backdoors, were short of bread, butter, eggs, biscuits, buns, and other bakery products. Those who take sugar-free products were more at disadvantageous position.
Vegetable markets and small groceries, which usually remain functional even during wheal-jam strikes, were also closed on this extending mourning.
There are a large number of people, who do only daily shopping of eatables, ran short of necessary stuff and suffered due to their own inability to foresee uncertainties which usually take the city into grip. They either borrowed vegetables or pulses from next-door neighbours or phoned their relatives and asked for "something to eat".
The effect of mourning was more visible in low and middle-income residential areas as compared to posh localities. There was comparative calm in posh areas, and people appeared relaxed, whereas, in low and middle-income localities the situation was still tense and there were groups of people who were objecting to opening of shops and resumption of commercial activity.
A large number of marriage ceremonies and valima receptions scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday have been postponed and fresh dates have been fixed for these events. Guests who have come from outside Karachi have now been forced to live for a few more days or, if hard pressed, return to their homes without attending these functions.
A large number of people who were on vacations or had come from abroad to visit their families were forced to cancel their departure. Either they missed their flights for want of transport, or changes in departure schedules of their flights.