28 June 2004	Monday	09 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, June 27: The transporters warned the government on Sunday against using 'snatched' vehicles to block roads during demonstrations and protests.

They said if the authorities did not stop forcibly seizing their vehicles, they would call a strike to protest against their high-handedness.

The police on Sunday had used a number of buses, minibuses, coaches and water-tankers to block different thoroughfares in a bid to foil the attempt of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal to hold a 'peace rally' in the city.

Irshad Bokhari, chief of the Karachi Transport Ittehad (KTI), said he and his colleagues met the city police chief on Saturday at which it was decided that adequate compensation would be provided to the transporters whose vehicles were used to block roads. He said such a commitment had been made in the past as well but not a single penny had been paid in compensation so far.

The amount of money owed by the government had reached a figure of Rs3.5 million, he added. "We are fed up with this practice as we are not paid at all by the authorities," said Mr Bokhari.

"Now we don't need money and we want that the government should use its own resources to block the roads."

He alleged that the police regularly seized public transport vehicles prior to the days on which strikes or protest rallies were called.

Some transporters paid Rs200 to Rs400 to the police just to retain the control of their own vehicles on such days. He said once a vehicle was forcibly seized, its operator incurred a loss of up to two days' income.

Mr Bokhari warned that the KTI was considering observing a strike against the authorities' attitude towards public transporters.