PESHAWAR: Transporters here on Thursday observed strike against the government’s failure to remove illegal stands from GT Road, Peshawar, besides increase in the CNG price and fee for renewal of route permits.

Led by Public Transport Owners Association’s leader Khan Zaman Afridi, most of the transporters parked their vehicles on Saddar Road and held a protest demonstration outside the Regional Transport Authority (RTA).

Talking to mediapersons, Mr Afridi said that on the one hand the government had imposed different taxes on the transporters, on the other the hike in the price of CNG and petroleum products had caused serious problems for them.

“Unlike other provinces the fee of route permit was increased every year in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he said and added that former chief minister Pervez Khattak in his tenure had accepted the transporters’ demands to bring down the ratio of all taxes and fee on the pattern of Punjab, but the decision was yet to be implemented.

Other leaders of the transporters, including Sher Zada, Noor Mohammad, Mohammad Alam and Yar Mohammad, also shared views on the occasion. “We have stopped our van service today to record our protest,” they said. They said that all illegal stands along the GT Road should be removed immediately to avoid congestion and stop exploitation of the owners at legal bus stands.

The transporters dispersed after assurance by the officials of RTS to consider their demands.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2018