The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday issued notice to the Sindh chief secretary, transport secretary and the regional transport authority among other respondents to file their respective replies to the petition calling for decrease in the public transport fares in wake of reduction in the petroleum prices.
United Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s Secretary General Rana Faizul Hassan approached the court against the provincial and local administration for their failure to pass the benefits from petroleum price cut on to the commuters.
In the petition, Rana submitted that the government had reduced the petroleum prices significantly but transport mafia was reluctant to reduce the fares of public transport including urban and inter-city transport. He added that the provincial government had set up the Regional Transport Authority to set the fares considering interests of the transporters as well as commuters but the regulating body had failed so far to provide relief to the commuters after significant decrease in the price of petroleum products.
The petitioner told the judges that fares of the public transport were decreased in other provinces including Punjab but in Sindh, union of the transporters had declined to decrease the fares. Therefore, the petitioner requested the court to issue directives for the authorities concerned to take measures for decrease in the fares and ensure decrease by Rs4.
After hearing preliminary arguments, the bench headed by Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi issued notice to the respondents to file comments by December 23.