PESHAWAR: The provincial government has hired at least 450 vehicles for election duties in the provincial metropolis, however, in some areas the transport operatives complained their vehicles were impounded without any written agreement against their will.

Some of the drivers of public transport told Dawn on Khyber Road on Sunday that the personnel of security forces had impounded their vehicles on verbal assurance regarding payment of dues.

They said the vehicles would remain on official duty till July 26 and each vehicle would be paid Rs3,000 as charges and Rs1,000 for fuel daily. They said they were not sure if the amount would be paid to them.

However, Urban Transport Union Peshawar president Khan Zaman Afridi said the election commission had demanded 800 vehicles for election duties in Peshawar but transporters gave only 450 vehicles so that the routine inter-city transport would not suffer.

He said the transporters would get Rs5,000 per vehicle which also included fuel charges. “We have about 1,000 vehicles in our bus stand and half of them would do the election duty till evening of July 25.”

He dispelled the impression that the shortage of vehicles on the inter-city routes would lead to increase in fare.

An ECP official said the commission had already arranged hired vehicles.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2018