FAISALABAD, May 27: Wagon owners and their staff will protest on June 1 outside the offices of the district Nazim and the DCO against the imposition of ban on plying of wagons on urban routes.

This was announced by Wagon Owners Alliance president Abdul Aziz Awan at a news conference here on Thursday. MMA district president Sardar Zafar Husain and district Jamaat-i-Islami amir Azim Randhawa were also present on the occasion.

Mr Awan claimed that MMA deputy secretary general Liaquat Baloch, MNAs and MPAs belonging to the PPP and the PML-N and other political leaders would take part in the protest.

He said the district administration had introduced bus service about a year ago. It was now forcing wagon owners to stop plying their vehicles which was a violation of the agreement between owners and the Faisalabad Urban Transport Authority.

He said there was no justification to ban wagons to make the bus service a success. Mr Awan said wagon owners had been protesting for the last one year but all their efforts proved futile due to indifferent attitude of the district government officials.

He claimed that wagons owners and drivers were being implicated in bogus cases to harass them. Sardar Zafar said the district administration was playing in the hands of influential owners of bus service for lust of money.

He announced full support to the protesting transporters adding that activists of the Jamaat and other religious parties would also attend the protest rally of June 1 to press the government for the acceptance of their demands.