KARACHI, July 3: The traffic police on Saturday arrested five termini operators of various minibuses and coaches for abetment and inciting drivers of other public transport buses to drive their vehicles recklessly and negligently.

A police spokesman in a press release said the token system was being run illegally by termini operators.

He said every bus, minibus and coach driver was issued a token to reach from one terminus to the other in stipulated time.

However, if the bus driver reached the terminus late, he would have to pay Rs20 for every minute he was late.

The spokesman said the token system was considered to be one of the major factors of over-speeding and reckless driving by drives of buses, minibuses and coaches.

He said the traffic police had held several meetings with operators of buses, minibuses and coaches to get the token system abolished, but not to avail.

He said the traffic police had on the directives of the newly appointed DIG Traffic, Falak Khurshid, raided various terminuses on Saturday and arrested terminus operators who included Mohammad Raza of Data Coach, Shamsul Haq of Mir Hasanzai Coach, Jamroz Khan of minibus route Z-2, Amir Rasool of minibus route R-1, and Syed Mohammad of Jamal Coach.

The traffic police registered cases against all the arrested termini operators under section 279/109 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The spokesman added that the traffic police’s action would continue until the menace of the token system was eliminated.