KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Saturday ordered the constitution of a high-level committee headed by the city mayor and all stakeholders to review the movement of heavy vehicles in the city during daytime.

Headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar, a two-judge bench was hearing a set of petitions filed by Faisal Bangali and other citizens against the provincial authorities for their failure to enforce the ban initially imposed by the Supreme Court.

They asked the court to issue directives to the authorities to improve public transport and introduce other alternatives to help commuters and reduce the burden on the existing transport. The court was further asked to order the authorities to strictly conduct fitness tests of vehicles running on city roads.

Transporters want specific routes exempted from heavy-traffic ban

Mayor Wasim Akhtar, a representative of the provincial government, DIG Traffic, KPT officials and representative of transporters appeared in court.

The transporters’ counsel informed the judges that they should be allowed to use the following routes: from Sohrab Goth to Gulshan Chowrangi; Sharea Faisal to Korangi; from Sohrab Goth to Korangi; and from Mai Kolachi bypass to Korangi via Seaview.

The counsel requested the court to lift the ban on movement of heavy vehicles on these routes as they did not pass through residential areas.

The KPT officials informed the court that the trust was incurring a loss of one billion rupees daily due to strike of transporters.

After hearing the submissions of transporters’ counsel and the KPT officials, the bench directed the formation of a high-level committee headed by the mayor and comprising all stakeholders and representatives of civil society to sort out the matter.

The petitioners submitted that they were perturbed by the present situation of traffic in the city, which was deteriorating day by day.

They stated that the apex court had passed an order directing the traffic DIGP and the municipal authorities to immediately stop heavy vehicles from plying on roads in the daytime to maintain smooth flow of traffic. Subsequently, the city commissioner also banned the movement of heavy traffic from 6am to 11pm for three months.

Nevertheless, they complained, heavy traffic was still freely plying on roads during the specific timings, taking a heavy toll on smooth flow of traffic and posing an imminent threat to the lives of people, the petitioners lamented.

The petitioners said the respondent authorities were bound to enforce the court orders for the improvement of traffic and safety of the public, but they had miserably failed to discharge their duties and implement the orders of the apex court.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2017