KARACHI, Dec 20: The Karachi Transport Ittehad and the Supreme Council of All-Pakistan Transporters have announced that they would remain neutral vis-à-vis the strike call given by the Majlis Tahaffuz-i-Hudood Allah for Friday (Dec 22).

The KTI and SCAPT held their separate meetings presided over by Syed Irshad Hussain Bokhari and Haji Mohammad Iqbal, respectively. The statements issued after the meetings said that the transporters’ associations maintained non-political and non-religious entity and, as such, they would remain neutral in national interest.

The KTI chief informed the members at its meeting that both the Majlis and the provincial government had contacted the Ittehad to seek its response to the strike call.

He said they were conveyed the Ittehad’s decision that the member organisations would be free to take any decision in this regard on their own.Meanwhile, a representative delegation of the SCAPT called on the provincial Minister for Transport Mohammad Adil Siddiqui and discussed with him the problems being faced by the member organisations. The minister assured the delegation that appropriate measures would be taken to resolve the problems.

Later, the SCAPT held a meeting and decided to remain neutral in the strike.

The UTS bus operators have also announced that they would operate all their buses on Friday.

TRADERS: The All-Pakistan Organisation of Small Traders and Cottage Industries has said that representatives of its 955 member bodies at a meeting, presided over by Mr Mehboob Azam, Coordinator, have decided to observe a shutter-down on Friday.