Karachi had a 40 percent drop in shopping on Independence Day.
Despite a strict eight-day lockdown and limited working hours, the citizens of Karachi spent Rs. 15 billion on the 74th Independence Day of Pakistan – a 40 percent decline from their spendings on the previous Independence Day.
Karachi’s citizens are highly patriotic but the traders selling Independence Day goods resented a ‘big’ dip in the sales on 14 August that has been attributed to the COVID-19 imposed lockdown and restrictions.
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The Chairman of the All Karachi Tajir Ittehad, Atiq Mir, said, “Even public, whose zeal and patriotism stand as higher as ever, could not turn to the markets because of the harsher COVID-19 lockdown”.
He remarked that people could only celebrate pre-August 14 festivities in their localities and that the Quaid’s city had appeared almost deserted with minimal signs of preparations for Independence Day.
“It was not the case last year though,” he said, and added “there is no doubt about the existence of coronavirus, but the restrictions on trade were harsher”.
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The chairman pointed out that the traders may lose 80 percent of their investments due to the continuous lockdowns.
He also revealed that Karachi’s traders and citizens are undergoing political victimization. He criticized the provincial government and said, “Traders and citizens give a clear impression that the PPP government is just for tax collections from Karachi, not for its development”.
