16 January 2005	Sunday	05 Zilhaj 1425

LAHORE, Jan 15: The Lahore Auto-Rickshaw Vendors Association and the All Punjab Rickshaw Taxi Unions Federation have urged the government to postpone the ban on manufacture of two-stroke rickshaw pending the commencement of the four-stroke three-wheeler manufacturing in the country.

Voicing the demand while addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club, Vendors Association President Muhammad Waheed Gul and Secretary General Tariq Awan said that there was no justification for imposing a ban on the manufacture and registration of two-stroke rickshaw when the four-stroke engine was not even being manufactured in the country.

Vendors would not be able to earn their livelihood if the two-stroke rickshaw manufacture was banned without starting the four-stroke engine manufacture. All Punjab Rickshaw Taxi Unions Federation Chairman Muhammad Javed Sabir and other office-bearers said at a press conference that the Supreme Court judgment had been misinterpreted for imposing a ban on two-stroke rickshaw.

Whereas the court had called for proposals to control the environmental pollution, the Punjab government had imposed a ban on registration of two-stroke rickshaw. They said the ban was discriminatory because it was imposed only on the auto-rickshaw and the motorcycle-rickshaw had been exempted from it.

Moreover, pollution was caused on account of use of substandard and adulterated mobile oil but the ban had been imposed on the manufacture and registration of two-stroke engine rickshaws instead.