Fear stalks Pakistani business



Thursday, January 03, 2008
KARACHI: Pakistani businessmen are veterans of political crises, but this time they say it’s different. From self-employed truck drivers to wealthy factory owners, no one can recall anything like the violence that shook Pakistan after last week’s murder of former premier Benazir Bhutto.

“This is the worst situation we’ve ever faced,” said Barkat Ali, surveying the charred remains of a petrol station and restaurant that he and his brother-in-law set up in Karachi four years ago. “Right now, the security is present,” Ali added, peering over his spectacles at a few soldiers patrolling across the road in an industrial area of the country’s largest city. “But if they leave the area, the fear is there. It’s never happened before.”

The Korangi industrial estate looks like a war zone: dozens of trucks have been torched and their remains flank both sides of the main street. Two trucks loaded with wheat were still smouldering on Tuesday, five days after Benazirís assassination.

Her murder, in a gun-and-bomb attack at an election-campaign rally last Thursday, unleashed a whirlwind of anger, especially in Karachi, capital of Benazir’s home province. Mobs torched buildings, vehicles and trains. Businesses were looted.

“They burnt our factory. It’s a total loss,” said Rashid Ali Warraich, standing with his hands jammed into the pockets of his leather jacket, surrounded by the ashes of the family business.

A small factory that once made bath towels for export to the United States, Unit 2 of Fazal Sardar Textile Mills was attacked by hundreds of rioters a day after Benazir’s assassination. The place had been abandoned the night before, so no one was injured.

“This is the first time they have come in the factory and burnt, in all history,” said Warraich who, like other Karachi businessmen, admit to having been shocked out of their previous stoicism about Pakistan’s history of political unrest.

“We think this could be the beginning,” he said, waving a hand at a charred heap of what were once white and blue-trimmed bath towels. “We are afraid for next time.” Fear and anxiety are not confined to the Korangi district.

Industrialists up and down the country are counting their losses. Though only a dozen or more small factories were burnt down in Karachi, the worst-affected area, fear brought virtually all of Pakistani industry to a halt: for at least three days, workers stayed home; roads, railways and depots were deserted.

There was no one to either make or move goods. Though Karachi port, the country’s largest, kept handling ships, trucks stopped turning up to collect the consignments when the trouble started.

“It’s now totally back to normal,” said the port’s traffic manager, S H Khamis. The Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimates that losses in the first four days after Benazir’s killing amounted to almost $1 billion, equal to about half of a percentage point of gross domestic product, based on official Pakistan GDP data.

“I think this is the worst that we have seen for maybe two decades or so. I have never seen a case like this with so many cars burnt,” said Shamim Ahmed Shamsi, the chamber’s chief. Rukhsar Ahmed, who part-owns a small roadside cafe for workers in the Korangi estate, agrees. His modest two-storey building, which doubled as his home, was looted and torched.

But Barkat Ali, who estimates he and his brother-in-law lost almost 30 million rupees ($487,400) in the attacks on their petrol station and restaurant, is not rushing back into business.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=89051

I dont understand. What is the point of burning someone else' property to avenge someone death dear to you.

I mean the victim will give bad dua to you and to the person who's death you are avenging.

What idiots. Violence has always been around in Pakistan, even assassination of political figures is nothing new. Separation of West and East Pakistan (Bangladesh) was way more violent and worse (of a situation) then this.

I have a question, but aren't these businesses insured?

PPP ≠ good economy.

To prove that equation, I shall do the following:

PPP leadership in the hands of Asif Zardari...Mr 10%...most corrupt man with a sketchy piece of fur under his nose.

PPP thugs burned property, businesses, gas stations and cost us billions of rupees.

PPP policies killed Pakistan's corporate streams in the 1970s...PPP leadership in the 1990s helped kill Pakistani economy further.

...and thus, PPP ≠ good economy.

Sadly though, the blame won't fall on PPP for the current economic 'issue' (though it should, for not controlling their supporters).

Sadly though, the blame won't fall on PPP for the current economic 'issue' (though it should, for not controlling their supporters).

Blame is always on the govt., if it does not allow foreign investigation or allows, they are to blame.

We do not want to go into constructive dialogue on the actions of our govt., it is usually only criticism.

Thats the sad part of our society (the people), blame is always put on the government, and not other people (groups). Like in this situation, blame should fall on PPP and its leadership for not being able to control their supporters (by 'control' I mean, tell them to stop burning everything in sight), not the government.

KSE at 13996 points ... up 650~ points since yesterday .... so some good news :)

I do not understand it. All this and the talk about pakistan in shambles in the news for the death of someone who was not even in the country in the past so many years? And all this bloodshed and fear because of that. Sounds spooky.

Yeah, I have yet to understand this mentality.

if KSE is any indication (which they are) the masses are over the death of butto and can't be bothered anymore.

You see that, WOOOOOOOOOT!

I really hope this shock ha been the last one for a while, although better be ready for others just in case. However this recovery so fast is very encouraging, may be, like with drugs, the Pakistani economy has developed tolerance to shocks.