KARACHI, June 3: As Karachiites braved prolonged power outages on Tuesday, enforcement of energy-saving Friday closure of markets in the city was put on hold, at least for a week, primarily because traders rejected the proposal and vowed to defy it, warning that the government would be responsible for a law and order situation if it tried to use force.

This was decided at a meeting of the Karachi Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday. At the meeting, Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfikar Mirza asked traders to form a five-member committee to find a way out of the situation.

Explaining reasons for the government’s energy-saving drive, he said it wanted to take every stakeholder on board as it was a democratic government.

It was decided that at least for the time being the administration would not use any coercive measure to enforce observance of the new timings and closure schedule for the markets.

Traders and businessmen gave vent to their anger and fear and refused to hear the chief executive of the Karachi Electric Supply Company, Gen (retd) Mohammad Amjad. They held the KESC responsible for “ruining their businesses” and causing huge losses to them because of power failures.

Those who criticised the KESC for its failure to honour its commitment included Siraj Kasim Teli, Shamim Shamsi, Majeed Memon, Mahmood Hamid, Rafiq Jadoon and Javed Shaikh.

The main contention of the trading community was that the government announced the energy-saving drive without taking them into confidence and without taking into consideration the typical nature of life in the metropolis.

Mahmood Hamid, the Karachi division president of the All Pakistan Association of Small Traders and Cottage Industries, said the meeting decided to constitute a five-member committee, including representatives of the traders to sort out issues related to the energy-conservation drive.

The Sindh home minister assured the small traders that no strong-arm tactics and measures, including visits by police, would be used by the government from now on for the enforcement of power conservation. He said the present democratic government would not act in an arbitrary manner to impose its decisions. He said the committee should sort out the contentious issues of power conservation drive within a week during which there would be no forcible implementation of the plan on traders.

Atiq Mir, the chairman of the Alliance of Market Associations, said the traders and shopkeepers would continue their routine trading activities and business hours despite introduction of the energy conservation drive of the government. He said there was no justification for shutting down shops at 9pm as already the regular business hours of markets had been severely marred by prolonged spells of load-shedding.

He said the first two days of the government’s power-conservation programme had seen much deterioration in power supply. He said that on Monday, which was the first working day after the introduction of the power-conservation drive, police personnel visited markets at Arambagh, Saddar and Tariq Road and advised shopkeepers and traders to shut down their businesses at 9pm. “However, they did not resort to any forcible means to ensure closure of markets in these areas after 9pm,” said Mr Mir.

He said that in another significant move on Monday evening power supply to shops in Zainab Market, just opposite the KESC head office, was shut down after 9pm, compelling the traders of the area to shutter their shops.

He urged the government to reverse its decision realizing the typical shopping culture of the city. The present measures would lead to further chaos in the markets for which the government alone would be responsible.

Meanwhile, as the mercury touched 36 degrees Celsius with 62 per cent humidity, the KESC was short of more than 400MW as its generating units could not generate enough electricity and continued with more than two-hour spells of load-shedding at least thrice during the day.

There were reports of EHT tripping in Nazimabad, Mauripur and Haroonabad which also affected some of the grid stations. Students appearing in exams were most affected by the outages in the suffocating heat. KESC consumers from every nook and cranny of the city had this question to ask: “Why is there no electricity, will somebody solve this problem?”

Residents of Hyderi Block G and the adjoining areas complained that they had been without electricity from 1.30pm to 7pm but the officials concerned did not respond to their desperate calls for help.