Eid sales could not get impetus even during the last week of Ramazan because of increased unannounced power outages in markets during peak shopping hours. "Traders were already fearful about the trade activities in Karachi which could not get momentum due to bad law and order situation and now electricity loadshedding five times a day has crippled sales ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr," said chairman old city traders' alliance, Jamil Paracha.
He said, however, retail businesses were improving, as people began to do some shopping for Eid but wholesale trade had declined significantly during Ramazan. He said that increasing power cuts had deprived each trader of millions of rupees earnings, besides shrinking purchasing power of people. Paracha said the KESC staff paid no heed to traders' complaints regarding electric faults or loadshedding. Earlier, traders expressed fears over the terror of targeted killing in the city, which frequently inflict huge losses, as several markets had come under arson attacks by miscreants recently.