HYDERABAD, March 30: The All-Pakistan Organization of Small Traders and Cottage Industries, Sindh, has condemned rampant lawlessness and price hike in the country and arrest of protesting businessmen in Karachi on March 16.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Tuesday, the organization’s Sindh chapter president Mashooq Ali Jatoi, vice-president Naseer Ahmad, and general-secretary Abdul Qayyum Qureshi announced that an all-Sindh businessmen convention would be held in Hyderabad on April 3 to discuss the issues.

They said the organization had launched a movement against lawlessness, robbery incidents and inflation in the province. They said in this connection it held a protest demonstration in Karachi on March 16 in which many traders were arrested and tortured.

They said the organization had nothing to do with politics but the torture of businessmen who had the right to express their views had exposed the rulers. No one was safe in Sindh and people who resisted robbery attempts were killed. It was no crime to ask the government to enforce the writ of law in the province, they maintained.

The organization leaders observed that if SHOs and staff of only two police stations were suspended for their failure to control crime, normalcy would return to the whole province.

They said the government had been proclaiming through jugglery of statistics that economy of the country had improved but the ground reality was that the common man was still groaning under inflation.

They demanded that the oil and gas advisory council should be reconstituted and representatives of businessmen be included in it. They further demanded that the price of petrol should be frozen for one year and no mini-budget be announced so that some relief could be provided to people.

The leaders said an army of ministers and advisers had been appointed who were living in luxury and millions of rupees were being spent on their cars, offices and protocol. However, they regretted that the common man could not arrange even two square meals for his family.

They said their protest against lawlessness and price hike would continue till resolution of the problems.