QUETTA, Aug 28: Buses and coaches for Karachi, Sukkur and Taftan and buses of Sariab Road remained off the roads on Saturday as a mark of protest for sealing the Satellite Town bus stand by the city district government nazim.

As a result, the passengers faced great inconvenience. The strike was called by a group of transporters.

The nazim, Mohammad Rahim Kakar, justified the sealing of the old bus stand on Friday night as it had been shifted to a new site at Hazarganji, and said that the transporters had been allotted plots for offices and parking places. The government was not responsible if they had not started the construction work.

But Hikmat Lehri and Qadir Raisani, representatives of the All-Balochistan Transporters Action Committee, blamed the nazim and the Quetta Development Authority for a biased attitude, saying that neither plots were allotted nor parking places were identified in the new site. Hence, sealing of the old bus stand was an unfair step.

They told Dawn that members of their organization would continue the strike until the authorities initiated negotiations to complete the process of the allotment of plots and reopen the Satellite Town bus stand for two months in order to enable them to start work at Hazarganji.

Mir Feroz Lehri, chief of the Sadabahar coaches and has his own terminal on Sariab Road, however, said that his coaches would not join the strike, claiming that the coaches for Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi left as usual on Saturday.

However, majority of buses and coaches for Karachi, Sukkur and Taftan did not operate due to strike by the All-Balochistan Transporters Action Committee. Similarly, the local buses on Sariab Road for city remained off the roads to back the protest.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Action Committee of Hazarganji bus stand, Dr Mohammad Sharif Kakar, addressing a press conference at the press club, said that they had been allotted 120 offices besides a site for parking in the new bus stand. Hence, he added, they supported the sealing of the Satellite Town stand's shifting to Hazarganji.

District Nazim rejected the charges that Feroz Lehri was permitted by him to use his terminal. Mr Lehri, he added, was granted stay by court and the district government would challenge the stay order.