KARACHI: The Sindh government has decided to cancel route permits and fitness certificates and impose heavy fines on the taxis and rickshaws plying without proper fare meters, and it plans not to issue at all the documents to violators in future.

It was stated by Sindh Minister for Transport Mumtaz Hussain Jakhrani when he was responding to a call attention notice of MQM MPA Jamal Ahmed at Sindh Assembly on Wednesday.

Mr Ahmed said that the taxis and rickshaws had been plying in Karachi without fare meters for years and demanded immediate action against them to facilitate general public.

The minister said that he had placed adverts in leading newspapers, drawing attention to installation of meters in taxis and rickshaws within a month.

He said that traffic police had been instructed not to allow any rickshaw or taxi without proper meters to ply and said that fine amounting to Rs2.3 million had been extracted on that account from the violators within a month.

Mr Jakhrani said that he had directed the motor vehicles inspectors not to issue any fitness certificate and route permit to any rickshaw or taxi that violated the direction.

Minister for Local Bodies Jam Khan Shoro said in response to MQM MPA Waqar Hussain Shah’s complaint about lack of cleanliness in Mansehra and Sherpao colonies that he had directed the department concerned to divert sewage of the Mansehra Colony to Malir Nadi.

Mr Khuhro said in response to MQM MPA Aamir Moeen Pirzada’s complaint that delay in completion of flyover on Berani Railway Gate in Tando Adam was caused by contractor’s slackness.

MQM MPA Muhammad Hussain Khan’s privilege motion about implementation of Sindh Assembly resolution, dated Nov 18, 2014, for protection to Hindu girls, was disposed of as the mover did not press it after the minister’s explanation.

The adjournment motion, which was also pushed by Mr Hussain was termed out of order and hypothetical. The motion said that Auditor General of Pakistan’s report found more than Rs1 trillion corruption in Sindh government departments during the financial year of 2014-15.

Mr Khuhro and Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah rejected the claim saying the figure exceeded even the total budget of Sindh in that year.

Afterwards, the second biannual monitoring report on the implementation of National Finance Commission award for January-June 2015 was laid before the house and the speaker, deferred clause by clause reading of the Sindh Motor Vehicles (amendment) Bill, 2015.

The speaker called it a day at 3.40 pm and adjourned the session to Friday.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2016