KARACHI, Dec 14: The trend of extorting car parking fee from motorists even at those places which have not been designated as charged-parking zones continues unabated in different parts of the city.

Most of the complaints have been received from different streets of Tariq Road’s commercial area, Zaibunnisa Street, Hyderi Market, Karimabad and M. A. Jinnah Road’s Gul Plaza.

Motorists complained that although the city government had introduced charged parking scheme on main thoroughfares of different commercial areas, a number of youths who introduce themselves as employees of the contractors of concerned town are charging parking fee from those who park their vehicles in the surrounding streets and bylanes of parking areas.

People residing in the vicinity of Karimabad’s Meena Bazaar, North Nazimabad’s Hyderi Market and M. A. Jinnah Road’s Gul Plaza complained that some touts keep on roaming in the area and they charge parking fee from them as well their guests although such streets have not yet been declared parking zones.

When such irregularities were brought to the notice of senior officials of the City Government, they admitted that such incidents have come to their notice and it was for this reason that a special checking squad had already been set up.

A special team, headed by the city government’s district officer (revenue), Rehan Khan, had recently handed over a number of people to the police for recovering illegal parking fees in various streets of Tariq Road.

TIMINGS EXTENDED: The DO (Recovery) has extended the timings of parking till Chand Raat on the request of contractors manning the charged-parking zones.