Sindh Transport Minister Awais Qadir Shah on Monday asked his staff to write to ride-sharing services companies Careem and Uber and direct them to obtain their Karachi route permits from the provincial government within seven days or risk termination of services, DawnNewsTV reported.

During the provincial-level meeting to discuss Karachi traffic and various ongoing development projects, the provincial transport minister inquired about a recent incident wherein a girl had jumped out of a car belonging to a ride-hailing service claiming that the driver had harassed her.

"How did that happen?" he asked, terming it the result of poor regulation of ride hailing services.

The minister ordered that Careem and Uber be told to "get their route permits from the provincial government within seven days", adding that a failure to do so "will result in the apps shutting down".

Last year, it had been agreed that the online ride-hailing apps will obtain permits under the Motor Vehicles Ordinance, 1965, in order to continue operating as a service provider.

"Only a memorandum of understanding was signed [between the government and the companies]; after that, nothing happened," an official was reported to have said when asked under what arrangement the companies had continued to operate under.

It was also reported that the Sindh government and the transport ministry had prepared a draft legislation aimed at addressing the issue of ride-hailing services and bring them under the ambit of the law.

The provincial government had earlier alleged that Careem and Uber were operating outside the scope of the law and should be barred from operating. The two companies have been accused of offering transport services "without registering the private cars with any regulatory body."