ISLAMABAD, 9 April 2003 — Traders went on a day-long strike in several cities yesterday to express anger over the death and destruction from the US-led war in Iraq.
Shops, markets and business houses were closed at several places in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and parts of central Punjab province, but activity remained close to normal in the commercial hubs of Karachi and Lahore.
“The strike is complete, all bazaars are closed,” residents in the NWFP capital Peshawar said. Black banners inscribed with slogans such as “Death to America” and appeals for all Muslims to unite against Washington festooned main shopping centers.
Some 120 local organizations backed the strike call issued by a traders convention held in the Punjab city of Bahawalpur last week. The six-party Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) — which rules NWFP — also supported the strike, but several rival trader organizations did not heed the call.
“We are observing the strike to express solidarity with our Iraqi brothers and to record our hatred over anti-Islam policies of the United States,” Hakim Abdul Waheed, chairman of Peshawar Business Forum told AFP.
The strike was also observed in several cities of Punjab province, the political heartland of Pakistan.
All shopping centers including wholesale markets remained closed in Multan, Muzaffargarh, Lieh, Dera Ghazi Khan and other cities in lower Punjab.
“It was a complete shutter down strike,” chairman of the Small Traders Alliance, Khawaja Muhammad Shafiq, said.
The strike was to vent anger against “ruthless bombings of residential areas and killings of thousands of innocent Iraqi people,” he said. Multan traders later staged a rally attended by more than 2,000 people.
The participants carried banners calling for a boycott of American and British products. The strike call failed, however, to spur a nationwide protest.
“We are staging anti-war rallies almost daily and we see no reason to shut down our businesses,” a Lahore business leader, Ansar Butt, said.
In Quetta, regional president of the shopkeepers union, Abdul Rahim Kakar, told a rally that America and its allies have attacked Iraq just to capture its oil resources.
“Every Muslim should oppose this war to save Iraqi people from destruction,” he said.
Except jewelers and some cloth merchants, traders in the commercial capital Karachi also did not join the strike.
