While Qadri’s long march has disturbed large businesses in the Blue Area, it has also generated means of earning for vendors and cart pushers.
Vendors and cart pushers selling corn, burgers, sweets, mineral water, biscuits, tea, rice (pulao) and other eatables, cashed on the opportunity to earn from the gathering at D-Chowk.
“I have spent more than 48 hours in the Blue Area to wait for the long march. All participants needed food and drink, so we bought eatables from vendors,” said Ahmed Hameed, a participant in the march. He said all shops had been shut down as a security measure and protestors had no means of buying food and drink. “We had no option but to but over-priced food from vendors,” he added.
Noureen, another participant, said she had brought biscuits and sweets to share with her friends, but they were not enough and they had to purchase mineral water and other eatables from vendors.
She said that vendors had been selling bottled water at high rates but they needed to purchase them to quench their thirst.
Mobile phone services had also been suspended in the capital for a period of time as part of security measures.
“This has become a regular norm in this country and no one cares about how much money we lose due to this suspension,” said Muhammad Shahbaz. He said he wasn’t talking about the trouble people went through or the loss in business, but daily charges were being deducted by mobile companies for services consumers could not use.
Another mobile phone subscriber gave examples of advance charges such as line rent for post-paid users, daily charges for voice and text packages, etc.
A Telecom expert from a private company said a large number of customers used SMS, MMS, mobile internet and voice bundles, and teh daily charges levied on them could go into millions of rupees.
