KARACHI, June 20: At a time when almost all main roads have been designated as charged-parking zones, a number of service roads and even adjoining streets of various commercial centres of the city have also been illegally turned into charged-parking lots, subjecting motorists to harassment.

To quote some instances, one would see that though the CDGK had designated only Hassan Square as a charged-parking zone, the contractor's men were collecting parking fees from all motorists who park their vehicles all along the service road of main University Road, starting from Hassan Square to NIPA flyover.

Similarly, parking fee was also being charged on adjoining streets of Gul Plaza, Zaibunnisa Street, Tariq Road and Bahadurabad. Sources in the city district government alleged that such a situation had been created deliberately by the CDGK's charged- parking department mainly to give a free hand to the contractor who had been awarded contract for collecting parking fee for the current financial year.

In support of their contention, the sources said, had the department concerned publicised the names of roads and other places, officially designated as charged-parking zones, the contractor's men would not have been encouraged to collect parking fees on other than the designated ones.

"One may see that as the current financial year for which the contract for collecting parking fee was awarded is fast coming to a close, the trend of extorting parking fee from places other than the designated charged-parking zones is increasing nowadays," another source commented.

"Isn't it amazing that although over 11 months have passed since the introduction of the new-charged parking system in the city, neither the city government's charged-parking department nor the contractor has, so far, bothered to notify the officially designated charged parking zones," the sources said, adding that such a situation was bound to encourage the contractor's staff to mint money from where they wished so.

Criticising the CDGK for allowing the contractor to collect parking fee from the parking sites of Ziauddin and Nazimabad's AO Clinic, concerned citizens hoped the city nazim will review its charged-parking fee and exempt parking lots of hospitals from fee from the next fiscal year.

Expressing resentment over the illegal trend of charging parking fee on other than the designated roads, they demanded the nazim to intervene into the matter and help save motorists from being harassed by the contractor's staff.

Terming the CDGK's charged-parking scheme introduced at parks and entertainment places as 'illogical', they said as a matter of fact, such a decision amounted to discourage people from visiting such places.

It may be mentioned that authorised charged-parking zones include; Zoological Garden, Hill Park, Safari Park, Bagh-i-Jinnah, Jehangir Kothari (Park Tower), Boat Basin, Clifton Aquarium and Dargah Abdullah Shah Ghazi, Faizee Rahameen Art Gallery/auditorium, and Gulshan-i-Iqbal's Sindbad and Funland.

Besides, other places where the contractor had been authorised to collect parking fee included Hyderi Market, Federal B Area's Water pump (Anarkali market), Old City Area, PIDC, Saddar, Radio Pakistan, Tariq Road, Sharea Faisal, Hotel Metropole/ Mere weather Road, Hassan Square, Gulbahar, S M Taufiq Road, Clifton Centre, Crystal Court, Paradise Centre, Civic Centre and Aladdin Park's service road.

Besides, the illegal trend of clamping vehicles by staff of the private contractor was continuing at various parking lots. Motorists who have become victims of such coercive measures, argued that how could the city government authorise private persons to clamp their vehicles when such powers were not even enjoyed by the traffic police.