KARACHI: Small traders here on Saturday staged a sit-in protest against the Sindh government for its "dual" standards of Covid-19 lockdown policy for trade in urban and rural areas of Sindh.

Hundreds of small traders amid rains held a sit-in on main M A Jinnah to protest against the Covid lockdowns standards of Sindh. They said there were dual standards for businesses, "strictest" for Karachi and Hyderabad but "compromising" for the rural areas. The protest was organized by Sindh Tajir Ittehad led by their Chairman, Jamil Paracha.

The protesting traders protested against the two days of markets closures in both cities, saying the rural areas have ease of businesses hours till 10 pm, unlike Karachi and Hyderabad, which are forced to shut down trade by 8 pm.

The members of Tajir Action Committee rejected what they called 'discriminatory' Covid-19 trade restrictions and dubbed the Sindh government's policy as "biased". They said that the trade closure in Karachi and Hyderabad is meant to hurt the national economy.

In other districts of Sindh, they said, there is only one weekly trade closure, while in the two urban parts there is a two-day lockdown, which will devastate the traders.

They asked the Sindh government for relaxing trade restrictions in Karachi and Hyderabad, besides providing interest-free loans to small traders to help them offset the financial losses suffered during the lockdown.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021