RAWALPINDI: Transporters call off strike: 4 new routes awarded
By Dawn Report
RAWALPINDI, April 25: Transporters displaced as a result of franchising of routes in the city on Sunday called off their protest drive after accepting four alternative routes proposed by the district Regional Transport Authority.
The decision was taken by the transporters at a meeting with provincial law minister Raja Basharat. The minister said the government was committed to implementing the franchise agreement and at the same time did not intend to render anyone jobless.
The new routes, he added, would on the one hand provide employment to the displaced transporters while on the other would ease the problems of commuters. He regretted that the transporters had used the opposition parties to pressure the government on the franchise transport issue.
The situation, he said, definitely led to a confrontation- like scenario between the government and the transporters. "What was the need of seeking support from PML (N) and the PPP when the government doors were open to you," he asked the transporters. "All of us are available for your service," he added.
The transporters contended that they never asked the PPP and the PML (N) to advocate their cause and it were the parties who themselves had been campaigning for them. It may be recalled that the transporters had constituted an action committee and appointed PPP MNA from the cantonment Zamurad Khan as its chairman. It was because of this reason that Mr Khan was implicated in a case regarding torching of a bus of the private company.
Regarding the cases against transport leaders, the minister said the government would be lenient and no innocent would be unjustifiably implicated in any case. "Only those responsible for the incidents of setting ablaze and damaging buses would be punished," he added.
In a separate meeting with the representatives of the private transport company, the minister said the government would do everything possible to ensure the safety of the buses and prevent the repeat of such incidents in which a bus was burnt and some others damaged.
Another bus of a franchised transport company was set on fire near Morgah late Saturday night, which led to the registration of a criminal case against People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) MNA Zumarad Khan and scores of public transport union leaders on Sunday, police said.
"The people identified in the FIR have been booked under anti-terrorist act and raids are being conducted to arrest them," a police official said. The PPP MNA condemned the district administration and said he was being victimized by registration of fake cases aimed to change his party affiliations. "I am committed with my party, come what may," he said.
