KARACHI: The government of Sindh said on Monday that it is taking steps to gradually reopen all business activity in the province.
"As the lockdown was imposed step by step, we are going to ease it in a gradual manner as well," Sindh Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah told Arab News.
"Initially, essential services were allowed and online trading has been permitted. Now, it is time for all other remaining businesses, and they will be allowed under standard safety procedures," he said, adding that the procedures are being designed.
While online trading was allowed to resume last week, requiring only one shopkeeper to be present at a shop's offline premises, according to traders it had facilitated less than 5 percent of over half a million shops in the province's capital of Karachi.
"There are around 650,000 shops at the city's trading centers and only 4-5 percent of the traders can avail themselves to online trading," said Atiq Mir, chairman of Karachi Tajir Itehad KTI.
He explained that most of traders simply have no system to sell their goods online.
Customers, too, prefer face-to-face consumer services, especially for their purchases ahead of Eid Al-Fitr, the holiday which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. They say they do not really trust online shopping, as often they do not get what they ordered.
"I ordered two suits at a ladies shop, but what I received was two old sweaters. The seller's address and contact number on the parcel were also wrong," said Huma Khan, a psychiatrist.
Mansur Jack, president of Bohra Bazaar Traders Association, who represents more than 1,500 shop owners at the city's busiest shopping center, told Arab News that online shopping "is not a viable option."
"Customers like to visit shops in person, choose from vast varieties of stitched and unstitched clothes, shoes, kitchen items, and so on," he said.
Not only in Sindh but also across the country, traders say they are ready to protest if restrictions on offline sales are not eased.
"We gave a 48-hour ultimatum to the government to make a decision to ease the lockdown, but they did not respond. We have decided to demonstrate against the closure of businesses on Tuesday," said Mehmood Hamid, president of All-Pakistan Organization of Small Traders and Cottage Industries. The ultimatum was made on Saturday.
"Practically, the country is open, only shops are closed. If the government fails to make a decision, traders will just open their shops," Kashif Chaudhry, president of Markazi Tanzeem-e-Tajran Pakistan said at a press conference in Islamabad on Monday.
In Sindh, pressure is also mounting from political parties.
"If the Sindh government fails to announce a clear policy to reopen businesses in Karachi, then we will launch a protest with traders," Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman, leader of Jamat-e-Islami Karachi, told reporters on Monday.
