KARACHI: Leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Saturday joined traders` protest at their camp in Boulton Market against the government failure to open letters of credit, growing cost of doing business and uncertainty caused by runaway inflation.

The traders demanded the government address their grievances and warned if it did not take immediately required corrective actions, the situation could slip out of control and lead to closure of several small and medium businesses across the country.

Addressing the protesters, Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Shiekh said the `imported government` had destroyed national economy and pushed poor masses into hunger and unemployment.

`The imported government has badly damaged economy and now it is carrying out economic genocide of traders,` he said.

`The traders have pointed out some very serious issues. 95 per cent factories of iron and steel have closed down in Karachi, while earlier several factories manufacturing shoes, plastic products, medicine, confectionery items and toys had already shut down. This is quite alarming,` he said.

He said the government had `prostrated` before International Monetary Fund (IMF) to beg loans, and held Sindh government and `Zardari mafia` responsible for the economic meltdown.

Muzammil Aslam, PTI leader and economist, said that wholesalers and retailers were contributing 25 per cent to the GDP. The IMF programme had been forcibly extended for nine months as the policies of federal finance minister Ishaq Dar had failed miserably, he said.

He said that smuggling was on the rise due to ban on imports. Electricity bills have been waived off in the name of flood victims, which has further added to circular debt, he added.