KARACHI, Dec 28: Country’s external trade came to a grinding halt on Friday as post-Benazir Bhutto assassination violence paralysed life in the city, and all sorts of business and industrial activities, including banks, petrol stations remained closed, and transporters kept their vehicles off the road for fear of more violence.

Riots erupted in the city on Thursday evening after PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in a public meeting in Rawalpindi.

According to official figures, the customs authorities all over the country received only 74 entries for import cargo and these too belonged to Lahore and Rawalpindi airports.

Customs posts throughout the country, on average, receive 2,500 entries daily, but on Friday it was less than one per cent of the total entries.

Efforts were made to contact the Karachi Customs officials, but there was no response to the phone calls which indicated that the staff might not have turned up owing to fragile law and order situation.

Consequently, export cargo was also not cleared for loading to match the shipping schedule at city ports, Karachi and Qasim. Since industrial activity also came to a standstill with no workers reaching their work-places and truckers also kept their vehicles off road, no fresh export consignments could reach the ports.Besides, industrial and business loss, the country will have to suffer millions of dollars on external trade, and according to rough estimates, on import front, daily loss comes to around $65 million as country’s total imports last year stood at $24 billion.

Most of imports also include industrial raw material and some semi-finished goods which are value-added for re-export.

The national exchequer collects billions of rupees in customs duty and other taxes at import stage and since no goods were cleared on Friday, there was huge revenue loss as well.

However, it is apprehended that for the next three days, situation may remain highly volatile and things may not normalise before Monday or Tuesday.

This would mean that the country would suffer a colossal loss on many accounts, including external trade, revenue, industrial and business.

Similarly, on the export front, only those consignments were able to match the shipping schedule and were loaded which found their way to the port area before the start of riots and violence on Thursday evening. Therefore, it can be easily assessed that export goods worth around $50 million (based on last year’s total export of $17 billion) could not be loaded on Friday to ensure timely delivery to their buyers.

Port managements issue their information about ship movement (loading and unloading of cargoes) based on 24 hours ending 0700 hours. This means that it relates to 12 hours of a previous day. However, according to a Karachi Port Trust (KPT) spokesman, the port on Friday handled 137,695 tons of import cargo and 120,41 tons of export cargo.

The import cargo comprised containerised cargo, general cargo, bulk cargo and liquid bulk cargo. Export cargo consisted dry and liquid cargo only. At Karachi port, four ships arrived and two sailed out of the harbour.

A Port Qasim official told Dawn that 30,000 tons of cargo was discharged on Friday and 10,000 tons of cargo was loaded. Three vessels arrived at the port and four sailed out of the harbour.

However, a vessel carrying diesel, which is running short in the country, was about to be given berth, he added. Import cargo comprised palm oil, containerised cargo, chemicals and wheat and containers carrying export cargo.

Most of the business leaders were of strong opinion that the situation might not normalise before Monday or Tuesday and this would mean that country’s industrial and business activity would remain paralysed for the next three to four days, resulting in loss to the tune of millions of dollars.

Imran Shaukat, chairman, SITE Association of Trade and Industry, said undoubtedly there was a huge and colossal loss to the economy but the actual loss in the shape of assassination of Ms Bhutto was still greater and even unbearable to the nation.

He confirmed that almost entire industry in SITE stopped production activity.

Masood Naqi, chairman, Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (Kati), said since Thursday evening, the industrial area is in the grip of violence and many units and trucks laden with goods have been set ablaze.

“There is no industrial activity of any sort which has brought imports and export to a grinding halt.” Masroor Ahmed Alvi, chiamran, F B Area Industrial Area, said 80 per cent of units in his area are export-oriented, but since last evening the industry had stopped production as there was no way out to carry goods to the ports. He said transporters have totally withdrawn their vehicles after the setting ablaze of a large number vehicles, including goods carriers.

Fawad Ijaz Khan, chairman, Pakistan Leather Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Plgmea), said that the tragic incident of Benazir’s assassination had occurred at a time when there was a peak season of his industry’s activity.

“Most of the our orders are booked in the West immediately after Chrismas and the New Year eve.”

He said: “long-term implications will have to be faced because next winter season booking starts in the first week of January, but our foreign buyers are now reluctant to enter into any deals fearing further complications.”

He urged the government to immediately restore peace because leather goods manufacturing industry had already lifted huge quantities of skins and hides to meet their export contracts.