KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday issued notices to the Sindh chief secretary, transport secretary, inspector general of police (IGP) and AIG Traffic in a case related to school vans.
A two-member bench of the SHC heard the petition filed by social activist Tariq Mansoor and summoned the officers concerned on January 30, Wednesday.
The petitioner stated that “the transport secretary had said that parents should send their children to schools on their own responsibility”. He stated that the secretary transport had also said that they did not have needed manpower to implement the rule.
The petitioner said that no steps have been taken by the government despite the notification. He also stated that Sindh government on May 7, 2014, had issued notification regarding the protection measures in school vans.
However, schools vans are not allowed to use CNG cylinders anymore. On January 25, a driver and a child received minor injuries after a school van caught fire in Zaman Town in Karachi’s Korangi. Transport Minister Owais Qadir Shah had ordered a fitness check of all school vans and ordered the transport permits of all unfit vans to be cancelled. The van drivers, however, don’t think this is fair. All Karachi School and Colleges Van Association staged a protest against this new rule on Thursday. Now parents of schoolchildren have to drop their children themselves, the petitioner concluded.