KARACHI, June 30: The city government’s new charged parking system is being introduced from Tuesday under which the contractor would have coercive powers, including clamping vehicles.

Though the new contractor is set to launch the operation to collect parking fee through his employees in the entire city, the CDGK’s parking department itself has failed to notify the places designated as charged parking zones. The contractor, thus, would have a free hand to collect the fee for parking anywhere, including the places already exempted from it.

Sources in the CDGK pointed out that the parking department officials had neither notified the designated parking zones in the city, not had they notified the fees officially. This lapse, they added, would encourage the contractor to take undue advantage of the situation.

Commenting on the issue, a number of citizens expressed their resentment over the move of empowering a private man or firm to clamp a vehicle for a minor offence like wrong parking or not obtaining a parking slip for any valid/invalid reason.

Many of those who talked to Dawn pointed out: “As a matter of fact, even the traffic police does not have the powers of clamping a vehicle unless it is hindering the traffic flow.”

Some of them also criticized the city government for declaring certain spots around Ziauddin Hospital and another hospital at Nazimabad No. 7 as designated charged parking sites.

“Most of the people visiting a hospital used to be either patients or their families — all already disturbed and undergoing some ordeal. It is not fair to add to their miseries by subjecting them to harassment in the name of traffic or parking rules,” said one of them.

Rejecting such contentions and defending the city government’s decision to apply parking fee for the space around hospitals, an official of the parking department claimed that the managements of the hospitals themselves had requested the department to charge the fee. “They had cited carjackings while making the request,” he said and quoted them as saying that the system could ensure a check on carjackers.

The department’s explanation did not satisfy those who regularly benefit from the charged parking facilities in the city. They pointed out that the fee slip, issued by any contractor of a designated parking site, carried a statement exonerating the contractor or his staff from any responsibility pertaining to the safety and security of the vehicle. The statement reads: “Owners should park their vehicles at their own risk and the contractor will not be responsible in case of lifting of vehicles from the parking zone.”

The new charged parking scheme also provides no relief to the visitors of Zoological Garden, Hill Park, Safari Park, Bagh-i-Jinnah, Jehangir Kothari/ Park Tower, Boat Basin, Clifton Aquarium, Dargah Abdullah Shah Ghazi and other such public places.

Under the rules of the new charged-parking scheme, Rs5 and Rs10 tickets would be issued for a motorcycle and four-wheeler respectively which would be valid for three hours. Parking can be made at any designated parking place during the three-hour period.

Besides, parking inside a walled parking site could be made for a whole day against the same fee.

It would be mandatory upon the authorized contractor to collect parking within his jurisdiction through concessional monthly fee by issuing passes of Rs200 for a motorcycle and Rs500 for a four-wheeler.