Political protests in the form
of strikes are still quite common in the Karachi, locally known as hartals. Such
a form of protest is associated with a mass movement of total shutdown of
economic activities and closure of educational institutes, which often results
in coercion, violence and damage of public and private properties. Proponents of
hartals claim this form of political protest as their rights to “freedom of
expression” and “freedom of assembly”; however, exercising such a form of
freedom comes at a cost to the nation and to the economy. Hartals hinder
movement of general citizens, and often associated with severe conflicts and
violence which frequently cause injuries and casualties coupled with damage of
public and private properties. Effects of hartals are many folds; firms lose
valuable working hours, factories miss labor days, poor miss their income days,
students miss classes, patients miss doctors’ appointments, transportation gets
delayed, meetings get postponed and overall economy misses its desired target.