Traders announce shutter down strike against inflated electricity bills

ISLAMABAD: The Markazi Tanzeem-e-Tajran Pakistan has announced a nationwide shutter down strike on September 2 against the inflated electricity bills.

Markazi Tanzeem-e-Tajran Pakistan President Kashif Chaudhary said that traders and industrialists would go on a peaceful strike to save their businesses from the “cruel” hike in power tariffs.

He demanded that the government should roll back the increase, abolish all types of taxes on electricity bills, and stop providing free units of electricity to certain groups.

He also said that bill installments or any other “fraud” by the power distribution companies were not acceptable, and that the nation was tired of bearing the burden of line losses and electricity theft.

The traders’ announcement of strike came after a series of protests across the country over the weekend, where people burned their power bills and clashed with officials.

High-electricity consumption users get ‘relief’

The protesters said that the bills they received were more than their salaries, and that they could not afford to pay them amid record inflation.

Interim Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, who took office earlier this month to oversee the national elections in three months, held a meeting earlier in the day to thrash out a plan to sort out the exorbitant power bills’ issue.

He said that the government would not take any decision in haste that could harm the nation, and urged the protesters not to damage any government facilities.

Pakistan agreed to raise power tariffs as part of a $3 billion bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in June, which helped the country avert a default.

The IMF deal was secured by the previous government of Shehbaz Sharif, who dissolved the parliament in early August.