PESHAWAR, Oct 26: Improvements recorded in business activities after Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf took reign of power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa proved a short-lived affair as a result of the recent flurry of terrorist activities, according to businessmen.

The recent spate of bomb blasts in Peshawar that left 139 people dead and scores of others injured, according to businessmen, took the situation ‘back to square one’ with trade and business activities dipping down to the pre-May 11 election level.

Peshawar businessmen told Dawn that business activities picked up momentum after the PTI came into power. “We were a happy lot as our business recorded improvement by over 50 per cent after PTI came into power,” said Waqar Ahmed, a Qissa Khwani Bazaar bookseller.

Yar Jan, a washing machine seller at Peshawar’s Khyber Bazaar, said his sales also picked up after the new government came in. “Business activities recorded considerable increase as a large number of consumers started turning up in the bazaar,” said a bearded Jan.

They attributed improvement in their businesses to a three-month lull in acts of terrorism in Peshawar.

However, their optimism about their businesses getting better proved short-lived as, said Mr Ahmed, “the recent bomb blasts in Peshawar have forced away the consumers.”Peshawar underwent first of the recent three bomb blasts that targeted a church on Sept 22, another ripped through a passenger bus on Sept 27, and the third blast ruined several shops in the busy Qissa Khwani Bazaar on Sept 29 last.

Before the recent bomb blasts, the last major explosion had taken place on June 30 last at Kohat road in which 18 people were killed.

Waqar Ahmed said Peshawar witnessed a ‘real change’ as no major bomb blast took place for at least three months after PTI came into power. It helped to restore consumers’ confidence as retailers recorded improvement in their daily sales and markets saw an increase in consumers’ influx.

“The recent blasts have taken us back to the days of Awami National Party-led government’s days in the province when insecurity and uncertainty was the norm because of terrorists’ threat,” said Mr Ahmed. He said the recent bomb blasts had, once again, scared away consumers.

“My business had started breathing, but it has run short of oxygen once again as the recent blast in Qissa Khwani Bazaar has resulted into a sharp decline in customers even in Khyber Bazaar (close to the Sept 29 bomb blast site),” said Mr Jan.

However, the resumption of bomb blasts does not form the only worry for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa businessmen. Business circles from other areas have got their own set of problems, hampering PTI to bring about the promised change.

Haji Sadeequllah, the central general secretary of Muttahida Shopkeepers Federation, said kidnapping for ransom was the major issue for the business circles in his native Charsadda district.

“The three-year-old grandson of a local goldsmith was kidnapped a few days ago and now his abductors are demanding Rs5 million in ransom, and in a latest incident a local sugar dealer’s elder brother was kidnapped two days ago,” said Mr Sadeequllah, who owns medicine sales outlet.

However, the general deterioration in law and order situation in the province is not the only factor that is proving ruinous for PTI-led government’s reputation. There are other issues, too, that have tainted the new provincial government’s credibility.

Price hike, prolonged loadshedding, changes brought about in the income tax return forms are some of the issues that are being regarded as PTI government’s failures though they have got more to do with the federal government’s policies.

“There is no difference be it PTI or any other party in power at the centre or any of the provinces,” said Sheikh Abdul Razaq, the senior vice-president of Anjuman-i-Tajraan, Qissa Khwani Bazaar.

Sheikh Moazzam Kamran, president of Aiwan-i-Zaraat (Chamber of Agriculture), Dera Ismail Khan, said there did not appear to be any let-up in the situation. Farmer community’s demands for an early commencement of sugarcane harvesting season from Nov 1, he added, remained ignored by the PTI government as had been the case in the days of the previous government.

“A strong lobby is active once again as has been the case in the past,” said Mr Kamran.