“Who Will Buy Newspaper From Me?”, Blind Hawker Decries

With culture of printed newspapers in extremis in Pakistan, the hawkers in the country have to make strenuous efforts to make ends meet amid coronavirus pandemic, and dolefully, a blind hawker in Balochistan’s Mastung is one of them.

The 70-year-old Mohammad Essa ,who was born with a visual impairment, has been selling newspapers for nearly 35 years and is now finding it difficult to earn his living in this profession.

“I have seen the rise and falls of the newspapers. I turned jobless during the first wave of coronavirus in Pakistan because the newspaper markets were closed during the pandemic”, Essa wept in a video posted by Arab News Pakistan.

#WATCH: What put Muhammad Essa, a blind paperboy who has been distributing newspapers in Mastung city for 35 years, nearly out of job? || #Pakistan #Balochistan
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Read: https://t.co/gc9dizwQNr pic.twitter.com/ty64gl8HXr

— Arab News Pakistan (@arabnewspk) March 2, 2021

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The hawker started selling newspapers when beggary was banned in Pakistan in 1985.

“I started my job as a newspaper hawker back in 1985 when then-President Zia ul Haq announced beggars would be imprisoned in Pakistan,” he maintained.

Essa started delivering newspapers as an alternate to maintain oneself and has seen times when he used to earn more than Rs 1,500 daily.

However, pandemic along with the decrease in demand for printed newspapers, has turned the seller almost out of work.

“Who will buy the paper from me when everybody is on social media and on their phones?” Essa decried while tlaking with Arab News.

The story of a blind hawker is not an exclusive one, the pandemic-induced economic insecurity in Pakistan has pushed hundreds of people towards unemployment.