LAHORE, Pakistan, Sept 2 — Public markets across Pakistan stayed closed today due to a strike by retail associations over rising electricity prices and brisk inflation, as the country embarks on a tricky path to economic recovery.
“Today, traders are observing a shutter down strike across Pakistan against the over charging electricity tariff and unjustified taxes,” Ashraf Bhatti, president of the All Pakistan Traders Association, told Reuters. In the southwestern city of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, public markets were shuttered all day for the protest, which was called by Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist opposition party and joined by traders’ groups.