ISLAMABAD, April 27: The People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) has threatened to launch a protest movement if the Punjab government does not allow transporters to run their vehicles on routes franchised to a private bus company.

Speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday evening, PPP parliamentarians condemned the government for registering cases under terrorism act against a party MNA, Zamarrud Khan, and other transporters. They asked the government to immediately withdraw the cases.

The press conference was held by PPP secretary-general Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, MNA Zamarrud Khan, MNA Qamaruz Zaman Kaira, MNA Sherry Rehman, Senator Enver Baig, MPA Ishtiaq Mirza, MPA Amir Fida Piracha, MPA Saima Bukhari, MPA Farzana Raja and MPA Azra Bano.

Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said if the government did not change its policy of awarding franchised routes to a bus company owned by the daughter of a retired army general, then people would be forced to come on streets. He said the PPP would not allow the government to implement any policy that would make people jobless.

The PPP leader alleged that the bus company, which had acquired buses after getting huge loans from a bank, wanted to establish its monopoly on the transport business in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

He said the government had implicated Zamarrud Khan in a terrorism cases instead of those bank officials who had granted loans to an individual, who was bent upon making a large number of people jobless.

He alleged that some employees of the bus company themselves set the buses on fire to claim insurance amount and to malign the PPP and the transporters. Mr Ashraf termed registration of cases against the PPP MNA a part of a government's campaign to break political parties. He said if such practices continued then the whole political system of the country would be destroyed.

Zamarrud Khan said he was not afraid of the 'tactics' being used by the administration to harass him. He announced that he would continue to raise his voice in support of the people of the city.

He accused the local administration of supporting and protecting the bus company. He maintained that the owner of the bus company could blackmail the whole administration in future if given monopoly on transport business.