KARACHI, Jan 8: The city witnessed an effective strike on Saturday, observed by the public transport operators in protest against the increase in diesel prices twice in a month.

The strike was observed on the appeal of the Karachi Transport Ittehad.

Almost all minibuses, buses and coaches remained off the road in the morning, causing immense hardships to commuters. Taxis, yellow cabs and rickshaws charged exorbitantly, taking advantage of the absence of public transport.

Mini-buses and coaches were off the road in the morning and a few of them started plying in the evening.

People in different localities were seen waiting for buses on stops. In the absence of any public transport, many people failed to reach their places of work.

"Attendance in offices and factories remained thin as transporters made it a point that people do not reach their offices," said a senior citizen.

Many people had to hire taxis and rickshaws on excessive fares. An extra-ordinary large number of cars were seen on main Sharea Faisal which, otherwise, remain off the road.

Many people, who avoid travelling in their cars normally, had to use their private vehicles in the absence of public transport.

Asim Naveed, who lives in Federal B Area, said he could not go to his office as there was no public transport in the morning and he could not afford to use taxi.

"In my opinion, transporters' demand is justified as the increase in petroleum prices would not only affect the transport sector, but would also cause an increase in the prices of essential commodities", he added.

KTI chief Irshad Bokhari termed the strike successful and said the transporters have numerous complaints against the government, but this strike is based on a one-point agenda.

"During the last two weeks, the oil companies have increased diesel prices by Rs1.89.

"We have made it clear upon the government that the transporters are not in favour of increasing fare.

"We do not want to pass on the burden to people. Our demand is that the government should take back the increase in fuel prices and the system of fortnight price review be discontinued, he said.

Hundreds of thousands of people, including women, children and students, faced hardships in reaching their offices and workplaces, due to a complete strike by the transporters in Karachi, says PPI.

As people were seen marching towards their respective destinations, astonishingly, metro coaches and large buses being run under the Karachi Public Transport Society (KPTS) and Urban Transport Service (UTS) also remained off the roads which caused hardships to people, who relentlessly waited for the UTS and Metro buses as these were not part of any protesting transport body.

People who faced hardship due to public transport strike, criticized the government for its failure to convince the transporters to ply their vehicles, saying it was the government which compelled the transporters to resort to strike by increasing petroleum prices off and on.

They argued that when any political parties gives a call for strike in the city, the government makes allout efforts to ensure presence of public transport on roads, but in this case, when the strike call was given by transporters, the government played the role of a silent spectator.

Enraged people recalled that a few years back, the government used to ply private vehicles while rangers and armed forces' vehicles were also used to transport people from one place to another in the city in case of strike, but no such arrangement was made on Saturday.

Interestingly, some people having their own means of transport termed the wheel-jam strike by public-transport organizations as a "welcome sign" for city environment and said owing to absence of buses and coaches on roads, they saved a lot of time in reaching their respective destinations.