KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the traffic police and transport authorities in a civil petition of the Association of Owners and Staff of Qingqi rickshaws, better known as Chingchi, for leave to appeal against the dismissal of their petition by the Sindh High Court.

The petition, filed by Advocate Ghulam Qadir Jatoi on behalf of the rickshaw owners, came up for initial hearing before a two-judge bench of the apex court comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Gulzar Ahmed.

The SHC had on Aug 5 dismissed the Qingqi owners’ petition against the action being taken against them by the provincial authorities including the traffic police. The SHC had banned the plying and operation of Qingqi rickshaws.

The petitioner asked the court to set aside the impugned order of the SHC and grant leave to appeal against the dismissal of their petition.

Drivers stage protests in Sindh towns

SUKKUR: Drivers of Qingqi rickshaws took out rallies and held demonstrations in Jacobabad and Naushahro Feroze districts on Monday in protest against the ban imposed by the Sindh High Court on plying the tri-wheelers.

In Jacobabad, the Qingqi Rickshaw Union staged protests on a third consecutive day and took out a rally, which started from Shaheed Allah Bux Park and concluded at the press club where the protesters held a sit-in.

The union leaders Munir Shaikh, Zamir Lahar, Khadim Lashari and others said while addressing the protesters that the ban had rendered thousands of rickshaw drivers jobless and forced their families into starvation.

They demanded that the authorities concerned immediately lift the ban on Qingqi rickshaws to save their families from starvation.

In Naushahro Feroze, hundreds of Qingqi rickshaw owners took out a rally and held a demonstration outside the offices of the deputy commissioner and the press club.

Saleem Pathan, Muneer Sheikh and Baber Sheikh who led the protest said that they were compelled to buy the tri-wheelers to feed their families after they were disappointed by the government that failed to provide them jobs.

They sold their cattle to arrange the amount or took loans to be able to purchase the rickshaws but all of a sudden they were told by police not to bring the vehicles on roads.

It came as a shock to them that the petition against their rickshaws was filed in the court by the United Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, they said.

They urged the government to allow them to ply the rickshaws to earn livelihood and give them some time for registration etc. If they had been informed earlier that their vehicles required approval of the engineering council they would not have purchased the rickshaws in the first place, they said.

They demanded the Sindh government file a petition in the court to have the order modified in order to give them some relief.

Similar protests were staged in Moro, Kandiaro, Lakha Road, Mehrabpur and Khan Wahan.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2015

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