KARACHI – In a move to pressure the Sindh government into allowing a four-rupee raise in public transport fares, city transporters have threatened to initiate a wheel-jam strike from Monday, April 11, till such time that all their demands are met.
The KTI would soon forward a summary seeking an increase of at least Rs 4 per seat by Sunday, transporters decided at a meeting on Monday of the larger transporters’ organization – Karachi Transport Ittehad (KTI) – at its head-office. The meeting resolved that 18,000 buses, mini-buses and coaches plying on various routes will be taken off the road, transporters’ representatives told Pakistan Today, unless a notification is issued by the Sindh government to increase the fares.
KTI President Irshad Hussain Bukhari told Pakistan Today that the transporters were waiting to see if the Sindh government increases fares by Sunday. If the government does not accede to transporters’ demands, he said, they will be left with no other option than to park their vehicles plying on various routes.
Bukhari said that the recent raise in diesel prices is not acceptable to the transporters community, as the burden would fall on the shoulders of already-poverty stricken people of the metropolis. The transporters are of the view that the recent raise of some Rs 10 per litre in diesel prices had adversely affected their business, as vehicle owners were paying Rs 1,000 extra for each trip that was made.
Meanwhile, transporters have begun to strategise for either scenario: transporters will meet Sindh Transport Minister Akhtar Jadoon to claim the outstanding compensation money of Rs 12 million in lieu of vehicles torched and damaged during the Ashura procession blast of 2009 as well as the repeated commissioning and impounding of their vehicles by the police for blockades.
