KARACHI: The shopkeepers of Saddar’s Cooperative Market are worried about losing business in the peak season of Ramazan if they are not compensated soon by the Sindh government to restart their businesses that were destroyed in an inferno on Nov 14 last year.
Although the shops have been repaired in the damaged market by some MNAs of the PTI from their own funds, the shopkeepers are awaiting promised compensation from the Sindh government to start doing business.
The traders said that inflation has pushed up costs, and the compensation amount, if received, will hardly be enough to be spent on buying furniture and goods to sell. A delay in compensating the affected shopkeepers would inflict more losses on them, they added. “My shop and shops of my sons were gutted in the fire. We have suffered losses of millions of rupees and we don’t have money to do the needful. The holy month of Ramazan is approaching fast. Normally my business touches its peak a month earlier than the religious festival of Eid as we deal in unstitched clothes. And if we do not get compensated soon, we fear losing the peak earning season”, Hanif Memon, an owner of six shops and chairman of the Saddar Cooperative Society said.
The promised amount is yet to be disbursed amongst the shopkeepers. The inferno gutted more than 350 shops on the ground floor.
The president of the Saddar Cooperative Market Society Shaikh Mohammad Feroz has said that the government had formed a committee to look into the matter of compensation. An eight-member committee was formed. The Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry was in negotiation with the government on behalf of the Saddar Cooperative Market Society.
“Our 370 shopkeepers in total were affected by the fire which broke out in November last year. The government had asked us to submit the details of the estimated loss which we submitted on Dec 4 last year. The government has accepted our demand and has allocated Rs915 million for compensation. However, the modality of its disbursement is yet to be worked out”, he informed Bol News.
Shaikh Feroz said the compensation of Rs120m for the Victoria Market shopkeepers was included in the Rs915m. Another fire had broken out in Victoria Market the day after the Saddar Cooperative Market incident. He also informed that the Cooperative Market shopkeepers would get Rs800m compensation in total.
He said that despite the submission of the details of the estimated loss, the Sindh government issued a pro forma asking the shopkeepers to fill it individually.
Shaikh Feroz also said that more than 348 shopkeepers had filled the pro forma and the rest would fill them soon.
He said the holy month of Ramazan was approaching fast and the month was considered to be a boom in business activities. He said that shopkeepers want to open their shops before the holy month which would start in the first week of April. The government had promised to disburse the compensation amount by the fifteenth of the current month.
Repeated attempts were made to contact Sindh Minister for Industries and Co-operatives Jam Ikramullah Dharejo and Karachi Administrator Murtaza Wahab for their versions on the issue, but they could not be reached. To a question, Shaikh Feroz said that PTI’s MNA Khurram Sher Zaman paid multiple visits after the fire incident. After he sensed the grave situation of the market, he accompanied the PTI MNA of the area Aftab Hussain Siddiqui, who inspected the gutted shops. While talking to the shopkeepers, he promised to get the shops repaired in two months that would enable them to prepare their shops according to their needs to start working.
Siddiqui fulfilled his promise of getting the shops back to a workable state. The PTI MNA did 10 per cent work; now 90pc work of buying furniture for shops, and some more necessities need to be done to restart business, said Zaman.
He urged the Sindh government to pay compensation to shopkeepers as early as possible so that they could reopen their shops before the Ramazan season.
