Pakistan shopkeepers strike nationwide over soaring energy, fuel prices
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There were widespread market closures on Saturday in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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ISLAMABAD – Thousands of Pakistan traders shuttered their shops on Saturday, striking over soaring energy and fuel bills, stirring widespread discontent ahead of national elections.
Decades of mismanagement and instability have hobbled Pakistan’s economy. This summer, Islamabad was forced into a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avert a default.
But the global lender demanded that popular subsidies cushioning living costs be slashed. Petrol and electricity prices have soared.
There were widespread market closures on Saturday in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar, where abandoned bazaars were posted with placards decrying “the unreasonable increase in electricity bills and taxes”.
“Everyone is participating because the situation has become unbearable now,” Lahore’s Township Traders Union president Ajmal Hashmi said.
“Some relief must be given so people can put food on the table.”
Traders wield immense power in Pakistan. With polls due in the coming months, the government faces the delicate task of keeping them on its side while sticking to IMF austerity measures.
Pakistan has historically been hamstrung by chronically low tax takings – including from traders – which have seen it accrue huge foreign debts it struggles to pay down.
The IMF hopes to end a cycle of bailouts that have propped up the economy for decades.
‘Growing disconnect’
On Friday, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar
“When you subsidise, you shift your fiscal obligations to the future. Rather than addressing the issue, you just delay it,” he told reporters in Islamabad.
The government raised petrol prices past the threshold of 300 rupees per litre for the first time this week.
The exchange rate against the US dollar is the lowest in Pakistan’s 76-year history.
Meanwhile, fresh data shows year-on-year inflation in August stood at 27.4 per cent, with motor fuel bills up 8 per cent from July.
“The bills we have received this month exceed our earnings,” said Mr Babar Mahmood, president of the Electronics Market Traders Union in Lahore.
“There is a growing disconnect between the general public and those in positions of power.”
A caretaker government has been ruling Pakistan since Parliament was dissolved in August.
The interim leadership
Khan, Pakistan’s most popular politician, is in prison battling a slew of legal cases
Meanwhile, the nation also faces a worsening security situation, with nine soldiers killed in a suicide attack
