The traders community in Punjab has incurred an estimated loss of over Rs 200 billion during the last three days due to protest rallies taken out by various religious parties across the province in solidarity with members of the recently-formed Tekreek-e-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYRA) in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, demanding resignation of Federal Law Minister Zahid Hamid.
Talking to Business Recorder here on Monday, president of All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajran Khalid Pervaiz said the traders' community across the province incurred an estimated loss of at least Rs 200 billion due to protest rallies in last three days. "Out of the total losses, the traders' community in Lahore sustained a collective loss of Rs 50 billion in last three days," Pervaiz maintained.
Responding to a query, he criticised the poor management and strategy of the government towards tackling the activists and supporters of TLYRA in Islamabad, saying the prevailing unrest in the country was the result of pathetic strategies of the ruling government. "Why did the government allow the protestors to gather in Islamabad?" he questioned.
He said it is sheer negligence of the state-run departments that people are on streets, adding that the law and order situation could have been tackled had the government took this matter seriously. To another query, Pervaiz maintained that not a single government official had taken them in confidence before initiating the crackdown against the Islamabad protestors which prompted other religious parties to take over streets across the province resulting in closure of businesses.
"The government is only good at collection of taxes, but they do not prefer to take us in confidence before tackling any untoward situation which leads to closure of businesses," he regretted. He urged the government to immediately resolve this matter, so that people could do their business without any hesitation.
On Monday, the demonstrators of a religious party continued their protest in Lahore outside the Punjab Assembly, paralyzing the red-zone area of the city besides forcing the traders to close their shops even after the leadership of the TLYRA called off their protest in Islamabad after successful negotiations with the government. Consequently, the major trading markets including local currency market, Akbari Mandi, Paper Market, Spare parts Market (Badami Bagh), Shah Alam Market, Urdu Bazaar, Hall Road and Panorama Centre were closed for security reasons.
A currency dealer, Uzair Ahmed, said the trading community on The Mall and other parts of the city remained unable to open their shops on Monday due to prevailing security situation, resulting in sustaining colossal losses to them. Hafiz Umair Orangzaib, a local trader of spare parts market, said they also remained unable to open their shops jut because of the failure of ruling government which could not tackle the situation wisely. He said people are living in an uncertain situation. Hafiz said he sustained an approximate loss of Rs 100,000 due to closure of his shop.
Asif Bhatti, another trader at Hall Road, said although the closure of markets forced them to sustain losses, but many of them could not receive their consignments. He urged the government to address the issues of protesting religious parties without any delay so that normalcy could be restored in the city.