ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday took notice of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration’s move to clamp down on popular app-based ridesharing services such as Careem.

“Today, the interior minister directed us not to take action against Uber and Careem,” said Islamabad deputy commissioner retired Capt Mushtaq Ahmed. Late December last year, the Islamabad district administration issued notices to all ridesharing services to stop their businesses because they were not using commercial vehicles.

The Islamabad offices of these companies were later sealed, but they resumed their service in the capital shortly after.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior said in a brief statement that Mr Khan took notice of a news report about Uber and Careem being banned by the deputy commissioner, and sought a report from him in this regard.

“The people cannot be deprived of a cheap and quality transport facility,” the statement quoted the minister as saying.

Speaking to Dawn, the deputy commissioner said the minister directed him not to take action against the ridesharing services for the time being.

“Our drive against unregistered taxi services was not specifically against Uber and Careem. Rather we took action against several other vehicles,” he said, adding that the ICT will look into how app-based services could be registered.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2017