22 August 2004	Sunday	05 Rajab 1425

KARACHI, Aug 21: In view of traffic jams and certain other causes of inconvenience to general public, the City Council has adopted a resolution calling for a complete ban on charged parking and cancellation of the current year's contract in this regard.

The council met here on Saturday with Naib City Nazim Tariq Hasan in the chair. It called upon the city government to consider measures for constructing parking lots and devising a better parking system for the city.

Presiding Officer Mr Muslim Pervez, mover of the resolution, said that the charged parking system had been introduced for convenience to people but it was causing hardship to them instead.

Besides, he added, it had become a major cause of traffic jams in different parts of the city. He observed that unplanned charged parking zones appeared to be a permanent cause of traffic chaos.

Mr Pervez also criticized awarding of the charged parking contract for this year without an agreement having been signed with the contractor. "The council has no information whether an agreement was signed or not. It does not have the information about the nature of payments made by the contractor to the city government either."

Calling for the cancellation of the contract, the council demanded recovery of the amount, paid by the contractor, through the District Officer (Recovery).

According to Mr Pervez, the contract was auctioned on July 1, 2004 but its details have not been submitted with the City Council as yet. When the concerned official was asked about it, he verbally replied that there had so far been no agreement in this regard in writing.

The city government should immediately ban charged parking in the city in order to provide relief to common man and bring an end to this unjust and unfair practice, he said.

He proposed setting up of a house committee to look into the affairs of charged parking contract. The committee, he added, should have powers to implement the relevant laws and take action against the officials involved in wrongdoings.

Mr Saeed Ghani told the house that the contractor was fleecing people by resorting to overcharging. He claimed that people were being made to pay Rs15-25 for a parked car instead of Rs10 as fixed by the CDGK.

He pointed out that no list of charged parking zones had been made public so far despite clear directives.

Mr Abdul Razzaq Siddique suggested that the head of charged parking be given under UCs which could manage it in a better way. He said that the UCs, after collecting the parking fee, could deposit the amount in the CDGK account after retaining 20 per cent of it as service charge.

Mr Najmi Alam expressed the view that all the agreements pertaining to revenues should be presented before the house committee. "The committee should go through the terms and conditions of an agreement before allowing the signing of the deal," he added.

Mr Tariq Hasan said that charged parking should be banned immediately but an alternative proper system should be there.

Mr Siddique Rathore said that agreement of charged parking should be produced before the council prior to the awarding of a contract.

CINEMA RAID: Earlier, when the session commenced, Ms Shamim Mumtaz Wasi severely criticized the law-enforcement agencies for conducting a raid on a cinema and arresting a number of men and women watching a film inside.

"Authorities should be ashamed of the way the women were pulled from hair and dragged by the LEA personnel," she added.

Under which law these people were subjected to maltreatment and detention? she asked, and denounced the concerned authorities for violating human rights and disrespecting womenfolk.

Mangla Sharma and Rana Advocate also expressed similar views and demanded punishment to the LEA personnel for their shameful act.-PPI