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| India-Pakistan |
| MMA, PML-N strike call fails |
| 2007-06-16 |
| Commercial activities continued in major commercial areas across the city as most of the people of Karachi ignored the call for a commercial strike on Friday by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. The opposition parties had called for a commercial strike to protest the killings of Wasif Aziz, a member of the Islami Jamiat Talba and the United Students Front, and of Hashmat Bangash, a member of the PML-N. The big markets in Saddar and M. A. Jinnah Road stayed open. The areas that were the scenes of violent protests against power outages also turned a deaf ear to the strike call. Shopkeepers chose to continue business as usual at Lasbela, Patel Para and Guru Mandir, where MMA leaders used to address supporters. Traffic was normal in most parts of the city except for a few localities. Transporters remained divided because Karachi Transport Ittehad (KTI), the main group of transport owners, did not back the call for a wheel-jam strike. “Political parties must realize that the transport belongs to us. As long as the police and government protect us we’ll ply on the roads,” said KTI President Irshad Bukhari. Interestingly, Bukhari, who had been critical of the MQM in the past, appreciated the city nazim and the governor who are both part of the MQM. Sources in the undeclared joint opposition said that the lack of support from the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was one of the reasons the strike was unsuccessful. Support from some ethnic parties, however, brought partial suspension of commercial activities in Gulistan-e-Johar. |
| Posted by:Fred |