KARACHI: Public transport operators on Sunday ended the wheel-jam strike after successful talks with senior officials, providing much-needed relief to commuters who had been facing immense inconvenience for the last four days due to the absence of over 7,000 buses, minibuses and coaches from the roads.

“We have announced the end of the strike after successful talks with Karachi Commissioner Syed Hassan Naqvi,” said Haji Tawab Khan, president of the Karachi Transport Ittehad (KTI).

Talking to Dawn, the KTI leader said the talks were held at the commissioner’s office and were attended by the secretary transport, the secretary regional transport authority, the DIG traffic and senior officials of the Excise Department.

He said they were given “assurances” regarding the redressal of their “legitimate” grievances pertaining to e-challans, double biometric verification and third-party insurance.

KTI leader says govt have promised to review hefty traffic fines, issues relating to biometric verification and third-party vehicle insurance

The authorities “have given assurances that some of the issues would be addressed immediately, while others would be resolved within 30 days”, he added.

The KTI president said their main demand was the reduction of the allegedly exorbitant e-challan amount of Rs7,500. “We have proposed reducing the e-challan fine to Rs2,000,” he added.

He said their other demand related to double biometric verification, which meant that not only buyers but also the owners [sellers] of the vehicles would have to be present during the transfer of ownership.

He said transporters tended to purchase vehicles on instalments, with repayment periods often extending over several years.

“We asked the officials to give us some time to approach the actual owners of the vehicles and produce them before the authorities so that the vehicles we have purchased could be transferred to our [buyers] names”. He added.

The KTI president said they were not against third-party insurance. However, their main demand was that they should not be bound to obtain such insurance from a particular company/firm.

He recalled that initially, third-party insurance cost a meagre amount, which gradually rose to Rs1,000. Now, the government wanted transporters to pay Rs12,000 for insurance coverage, saying that the insurance companies would pay compensation for damage caused to other vehicles in accidents involving public transport vehicles, he said.

The transport leader said they were given assurances that the issue of e-challans would be addressed urgently, while the other two issues would be resolved within 30 days.

He said there were an estimated 7,000 to 7,500 buses, minibuses and coaches plying the roads of Karachi. Some transporters resumed operating their vehicles on Sunday evening after the end of the strike, he added.

Dawn contacted the Karachi commissioner and the DIG traffic for their versions of the transporters’ claims, but they did not respond.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2026